


Endymion and I

by cognomen



Series: Only a Paper Moon [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Animal Death, Animal Transformation, Competent Finn, Complete, Finn is awesome and everyone should love him, M/M, Medicinal Drug Use, Minor Violence, Oral Sex, Pack Dynamics, Poe Dameron Hurts So Prettily, domestic au with angst, farming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 13:10:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 41
Words: 31,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7641685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cognomen/pseuds/cognomen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"Hey buddy, you can't be here," Poe says, the hair standing up on the back of his neck and his change crackling to readiness in the back of his skull. He could have sounded a little less like a pushover. </i>
</p><p><i>Packs aren't supposed to fight anymore, but Poe knows that the invasion of his pack's territory can't be taken lightly - and </i>he's<i> supposed to be on guard out here at the edge of it. </i></p><p>  <i>The stranger's expression turns pleading. He's breathing hard as if he'd just run all the way here from Bangor. It's a cold night out there, even for a wolf.</i> </p><p> <i>"I need sanctuary," he says. </i><br/><br/>For the TFA-Kink prompt: Poe's an anomaly: a human male whose shifted wolf form is female. Considered bad luck, he's destined to be alone. Then a runaway lone wolf shows up at the pack's front door. And Finn doesn't believe in any luck other than the luck you make yourself.<br/><br/>In which Finn is a runaway from the massive First Order pack and Poe exists on the outskirts of his much smaller pack, living by only existing, and how they each change each other as they discover the true meaning of 'pack'.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Poe is just settling in for the evening when the knock at his door rouses him from his half-doze. he puts his book aside, answering the sound by a civilized instinct that he hasn't quite let go sour, even since moving here into the woods. No one should be knocking on his door at 11pm - but maybe it's one of his pack.

"What do you need?" he wonders aloud, stretching his back as he gets out of his chair and heads for the cabin's front door. The only other occupant, an orange and white mutt, doesn't do more than lift his head to look at the door when the knock comes again.

Well, he hardly has to worry about being a guard dog for a werewolf.

Poe opens the door, expecting to find Jess or Snap - they're about the only pack members willing to have anything to do with him, an even that much is limited by pack leader Organa. She tolerates Poe, but she has to be careful to maintain order in the rest of the pack, and with his unlucky condition...

Instead of any familiar face, there's a stranger on the other side of his door. A strange _wolf_ , if Poe's senses haven't gone completely wrong. He looks tired and dirty, like he's been through an ordeal. 

"Hey buddy, you can't be here," Poe says, the hair standing up on the back of his neck and his change crackling to readiness in the back of his skull. He could have sounded a little less like a pushover. 

Packs aren't supposed to fight anymore, but Poe knows that the invasion of his pack's territory can't be taken lightly - and _he's_ supposed to be on guard out here at the edge of it. 

The stranger's expression turns pleading. He's breathing hard as if he'd just run all the way here from Bangor. It's a cold night out there, even for a wolf.

"I need sanctuary," he says.

Poe blinks - it catches him so off-guard that he's sure he can't have heard right. "You need - ?"

"Sanctuary," the stranger repeats, his dark eyes entreating.

Poe leans back as if to escape the effects of a spell circle. "That's what I thought you said."

He looks over the man standing on his stoop. Brown skin, neat hair, clothes that are relatively new under the effects of his flight from whatever he's running from. He can't be _that_ out of touch, he's probably younger than Poe.

"You know it's 2016, right?" Poe asks, wondering if this is some kind of pack initiation prank.

"uh," the man says, like now _Poe's_ the one not making any sense. "Yeah. And it's November, and it's _really cold._ "

He looks at Poe as if he might take a hint. But, offering sanctuary is pretty serious. Poe rocks back on his heels. "I'm not sure if I have the authority..."

"Is this the edge of your pack's territory?" the stranger asks, looking back over his shoulder reluctantly as if he doesn't want to have to backtrack through the woods in the cold.

"Yeah," Poe admits, looking up. The moon isn't full tonight, but nearly there, and the corona around it hints of snow.

"And you're the guard?" the stranger asks, walking Poe through the steps of Tribal Pact Law he hasn't thought about since cub camp.

"Yes," Poe agrees to this, too. He doesn't want to tell a stranger from another pack that it's more complicated than that.

"Then you have the authority," the stranger says with conviction. He reaches for Poe, catching hold of his hands with cold, bare fingers before he can react. "Please. I'm begging you."

Poe hasn't been touched anything other than violent or clinical intent in so long that the act of supplication surprises him, shocking him into silence. He takes a step back, and the man sees it as an invitation to come in, welcoming himself into Poe's home - his den - and under his protection.

"Thank you," he says, squeezing Poe's hands as he steps inside, a new and unexpected mystery that's come in from the cold Maine November to warm himself at Poe's fire.


	2. Chapter 2

His name, Poe learns, is Finn. Despite their abrupt introduction, he's easy to get along with. He settles by the hearth to warm up, and B.B. quickly takes to him, settling his big, shaggy head in Finn's lap in clear pleasure as Finn scratches behind the dog's ears.

It's such an achingly domestic echo of what Poe can never have that he makes the first excuse he can to get out of the living room and stop talking to Finn. It's hard to do both things with such a gorgeous guest practically rolling over to show his belly. Whatever Finn has been through, he's still friendly and curious about the world.

"So who is your pack leader down here? I saw the marks, but I didn't recognize them," Finn calls after Poe, as he makes busy carrying in a new armload of wood to keep the downstairs fire going through the night since - for the first time ever, Poe's going to have company.

"It's Leia Organa," Poe says, not bothering to hide his pride in the fact. He sets the armload of wood into the wrought iron cradle, dusting his hands off. "We're not a very big pack."

In anything bigger, there'd be no place for Poe at all. Too many conflicting opinions on what should be done with him, and in a pack without such respect for it's leader that would lead, possibly, to mutiny. Here, so long as Poe plays by very strict rules and stays 'out of trouble', it's okay.

"Are you alone out here?" Finna asks, and the question puts Poe on edge for a moment. Is this a ruse to gauge the strength of his pack? The accords have held for years, under a council of representatives from all the major packs. There was still some unease, of course, but Poe chalks his paranoia up to the nearness of the full moon. It's enough to put any wolf on edge.

Peace has always been sort of tentative and uncertain where werewolves are involved.

"Well, there's B.B.," Poe says, evading the real question and indicating the dog in Finn's lap. He tries to convince himself that it was just a polite question, that Finn is just making interested and civilized conversation, but he doesn't trust his own luck.

Poe moves out of Finn's line of sight so that his big, dark, _earnest_ expression can't affect Poe quite so much. Poe's not blind - though maybe he's a little desperate. Even if Poe wasn't, Finn is handsome. He has a cute, expressive face, and big, broad shoulders. An effortless stillness and steadiness that makes Poe's heart flutter, just a little as he retreats to the kitchen.

"What's B.B. stand for?" Finn calls, lifting his voice just enough for Poe's sensitive hearing.

"Technically, it stands for 'Blues Boy'," Poe says. "You want a cup of coffee?"

The whole situation is so strange that Poe's only defense is his rusty hospitality.

"Yes, please," Finn says. "Why 'Blues Boy'?"

Poe measures coffee into the filter of his machine. He has trouble gauging exactly how much - usually he only makes coffee for one, and what if Finn wants a second cup?

"Well, he's named after B.B. King," Poe explains, dropping in a third extra scoop. "I guess you'd have to ask him about it."

Finn goes quiet, maybe considering this or maybe just patting the dog.

"You must like blues," he says. Poe carries the two cups of coffee into his living room, and the strange warmth that seems to live there.

"Everybody likes the blues," Poe says, feeling it fairly acutely at this moment.

"I only like it when I'm _feeling_ blue," Finn says, accepting his cup and drinking the coffee black - it warms Poe's heart, but removes his avenue of escape. No excuse to go back and get the cream or sugar. 

"I'd be feeling pretty blue if I needed sanctuary somewhere," Poe observes, curious but trying not to be rude. Finn owes an explanation only to the pack leader, but it's such an unusual situation...

Finn looks up at him with an expression of gentle apology, and then rolls his shoulders in a shrug.

"Maybe you'd be sad," Finn agrees. "But I'm already someplace better than I was before, so I feel pretty good."

He pauses, rubbing B.B.'s ears for emphasis. "The _company_ is certainly already better."

Poe tries to shut down the desperate hope that wakes up in his chest, scratching at a door like a dog in a storm. That door has been closed for a very long time.

He leaves Finn all his spare blankets and pillows to make his stay on the couch more comfortable, and shows him how to run hot water from the holding tank for the shower and as politely as possible invites him to use it. Finn seems amazed by the simple luxury beyond the usual way city folk are by rural ingenuity.

Poe leaves his new mystery curled up on the couch, and climbs up into his loft bedroom for a night of fitful sleep as he cannot shake the _awareness_ of another living soul so close and vulnerable.


	3. Chapter 3

In the morning he waits patiently outside the big longhouse cabin where the alpha's council is debating what to do with Finn. No one comes near him - either word hasn't made it through the twilight bark yet, or it _has_ and his pack mates don't see any need to discuss it with Poe. After all, if Finn is accepted, he'll be spirited away to meet everyone else and they'll be able to figure him out first hand.

If not, they'll get their answers from Leia, and maybe one or two more adventurous souls will come by seeking details from Poe on the sly.

Either way, after this meeting, it may be Poe's only chance to say goodbye. So he waits, monopolizing the propane heater on the cabin's porch as a ward against the snow falling calmly on the quiet world beyond. He smokes, too. A big cigar pulled from an inner pocket and tapped occasionally into an overflowing ash tray.

B.B. sits under the table with his chin on his paws, sound asleep. Poe watches the smoke drift between snowflakes in blue ribbons and wishes he could afford a dog-nap too. Maybe in the afternoon, if his chores go quickly.

That seems unlikely as Poe continues to wait, listening to the voices but unable to make out the words. No one sounds upset, which is good, but Finn has answered a lot of questions and it seems like every pack elder has a point to add to the debate.

_Well,_ Poe thinks, puffing out cigar smoke in a blue-gray ring, _it's not like I have any idea how this is supposed to go._

No one's asked for sanctuary in _his_ lifetime, anyway. There's probably a ritual, but also anything unusual tended to provoke a lot of debate. A fact he knows intimately, as the subject of more debate than he'd care to be.

Poe watches the clouds drift against clouds, darker forms dropping snow against a hazy backdrop of lighter clouds blotting the sky.

Eventually, the whole morning is gone and Poe extinguishes the last inch of his cigar. The voices inside get quiet just before bodies begin to file out. Poe is sitting at the furthest end of the deck from the door, keeping his gaze low and hoping to avoid notice.

When he looks up again, all of the sounds of footsteps over the deck have faded. He doesn't see Finn, and his heart sinks a little. Maybe they've already warned him away from Poe. Maybe they hadn't agreed to permanent sanctuary. It's not a big pack, and if a larger one was after Finn, they could not provide a lot of protection.

Leia appears in the doorway and calls him out of his thoughts.

"Poe," she says, holding the door open for him.

He gets up, answering her implied beckon obediently. B.B. follows, giving a big shake when he gets up that fills the cold, quiet air with the slapping sounds of his ears and a jingle of his tags.

"I didn't get to say 'good morning'," Poe says, as brightly as he can manage.

Leia smiles - he's not in trouble.

"You put me in a difficult place today," she says, closing the door behind B.B.

Inside the longhouse is a big open space. Usually gatherings are held here - opportunities for pack bonding and big meetings. At other times, it has served as emergency shelter when big storms come through, keeping everyone together and warm. Most often, it serves as a meeting place for the Alpha's council - Leia, Ackbar, and Statura - when a decision about the future of the pack needs to be made.

"I'm sorry," Poe says, looking at the big, heavy wooden table at the center of the room. It's older than the building, a holdover from a time before Poe was even born. "He surprised me and all I could think of were all my lessons on the old rules."

Leia sighs. "I don't think you made the wrong decision."

She turns to look at him, and he resists the urge to crouch down submissively when he meets her gaze. It holds some mix of emotions that he recognizes as frustration and irritation. In her younger days, her reputation as a 'my way or the highway' hellcat had been made. In the years since the Tribal Pact Laws have been enacted, she has undergone the square-hole-round-peg hammering to make her into a diplomat.

Today is a day that such politeness irritates her, and her wolf nature threatens to break free.

"So why'd it take so long to work it out, ma'am?" Poe asks, respectfully.

Leia sighs. She makes a gesture, a sweeping of her hand that's a crude approximation of a tail signal, and Poe crouches down on the ground, submitting.

Leia puts her hand on his head, affectionately ruffling his hair. I thrills him, wakes up that old instinct-longing for more contact and connection with his pack.

"You have a good heart," she says. "Like your mother."

Poe completes the thought without voicing it - _now if only I wasn't cursed like her, too._

"It wasn't the decision," Leia says, her fingers comforting against his scalp. "But some people feel that who makes a decision is more important than a decision itself."

Poe sighs. One night and they were already holding the association with Poe against Finn.

"It was so late," Poe apologizes. "I mean, I know we're creatures of the night and all, but I'd rather face you in full shift then wake you up past midnight."

Leia laughs. "And you shouldn't have to. A border keeper has a right to make the decision you did. I knew that when I gave you the position."

_You just didn't expect me to ever have to make it,_ Poe realizes. It stings a little, but he knows she'd had to fight to get him there, and today she'd fought to keep him there. She takes her hand off his head, and he gets up.

"Does he have permission to stay?" Poe asks, telling himself it's natural to be curious.

"He'll stay," Leia agrees. "It's complicated, but I won't have it said that we don't honor the Pact and the Old Rules - or that we're afraid to."

Poe's glad. Finn's nice and gentle - and easy to look at. Even if it means they'll never be close, Finn will be a good addition to the pack.

"Alright," Leia says, dismissing Poe. "Go home. And next time you grant some puppy with pretty eyes sanctuary, you better bring me some of your excellent coffee with the news."

Poe grins, patting his leg to call B.B. to his side. "Yes, ma'am."


	4. Chapter 4

It's a sign of how often it happens when B.B. doesn't even wake up at the sound of claws scratching at the kitchen door of the cabin. It's quickly followed by the dog door swinging open and flapping closed twice.

Company.

"Hey Jess," Poe calls, setting down his book. "Hey, Snap."

He hasn't been reading anyway, just holding the book in his lap and getting lost in his thoughts. The click of claws on kitchen tile becomes the pad of bare feet.

"Hey, Poe," Jess calls back.

Poe waits according to etiquette for his guests - who avoid drawing attention to their visits by coming in the unconventional way - to fetch the pair of robes waiting for them in the pantry.

"Have some coffee, if you like," Poe calls, knowing that Jess will help herself anyway, and Snap will refuse.

He appears in the door way in an old blue bathrobe, grinning.

"You made quite a stir today," Snap observes.

"Guess so," Poe agrees. He'd fed his chickens, checked the woodpile and then come inside to avoid any chance of offending one of the older members of the pack by being seen.

"Not as much as the new guy, though," Jess says. Poe hears a spoon in a mug, then in the basin of his sink before she appears in her kimono, drinking out of his favourite cup.

"It's not everyday someone comes and asks for Sanctuary," Poe agrees - he's more interested in news about Finn than gossip about himself and how this will mean bad luck for the pack.

"Yeah, did he tell you why?" Snap asks, watching Poe.

Poe shakes his head. "I was curious, but I didn't ask."

Jess groans. "Now we'll never know."

She sounds like that's the biggest agony of her life.

"Well it's not required that he tells anyone but the pack leader-" Poe starts.

Jess throws herself down on the couch in frustration, slopping coffee on the floor. B.B. wakes up just to lick it off the wood.

"For someone who lives outside the rules just by being alive," Jess says, "you sure love following the rules."

"She means you're too polite. Did you ask any questions at all?" Snap asks.

"No," Poe says. "He was pretty beat up and dirty, he looked like he'd been through enough."

Jess looks disappointed.

"Besides, I have to follow the rules," Poe says. "Sometimes the elders look at me and I can tell they're regretting not eating me as a puppy."

"Nobody _does_ that anymore," Jess says.

"Leia wouldn't let them," Snap agrees.

"Leia can't be around all the time," Poe says, and then he smiles to lighten his words up a little. "And nobody asks Sanctuary anymore, but the tradition is still honored."

"It almost wasn't," Snap says. "Leia had to override the majority with an Alpha ruling."

"What?" Poe asks.

"Uh huh," Jess agrees. "Statura's really upset about it, and he's complaining to anyone who'll listen."

"What about Ackbar?" Poe asks, concerned. 

Snap shrugs.

"Who can ever tell?" Jess asks. "If he ever talks to anyone, he's careful about it. I think he objected to Finn based on the pack he came from instead of just because he doesn't like you."

"But that's just a guess," Snap says.

"All we _have_ are guesses," Jess laments. "Someone said he could be a fugitive from the First Order, but nobody _knows_. That's why we were hoping you'd asked some questions."

Poe isn't surprised by all the gossip and rumors. If he's learned anything, it's that wolf-packs seem to run on these. Especially in the winter when all there is to do is keep warm and occasionally hunt.

The pack together, anyway, and Poe on his own.

"You could try asking him," Poe says, amused by their juvenile desperation.

"Sure," Snap agrees. "If we can get him to stop asking questions about _you_ for five minutes."

Poe's heart skips a beat and he looks closely at his friends to see if they're messing with him. Snap is amused at the thought of Finn's fascination, and Jess is practically leaning off the couch to see Poe's reaction. It's this hopeful look in her face that drags him back down to earth.

"How much has he been told?" Poe asks, preparing himself for the worst. He would have liked to be able to tell Finn himself.

"Everybody's being polite," Snap says. "You know how it is, they don't want to admit they're superstitious bigots, so they talk around it and hope he'll come to the right conclusion."

_Typical_ , Poe thinks. Even if he doesn't come to the 'right conclusion' , he'll pick up on the idea that Poe is to be avoided. If Finn wants to get or hold status in the pack, he'll stay away.

"Well, that'll stop soon," Poe says, trying to sound distant from it. He'd barely known Finn, less than 24 hours, in fact. It's a sign how desperate Poe is for friends that he sees a lost opportunity there.

"Aw, Poe," Jess says.

"It's okay," Poe says, defensively. "Really. He's had enough trouble. Even I'd go for the smooth path, if I were him."

"Buddy," Snap says, exasperated.

"You two grew up with me," Poe says. "You have a reason to come back."

"Even if you make us sneak around," Snap says, indicating the robe he's wearing.

"He just likes the thought of naked people in his kitchen," Jess says.

"You guys don't get the 'acknowledging your social influence' speech when Statura or one of the old-timers sees you over here," Poe says. "And it's probably the only action my kitchen will ever get. Don't take that away from me."

Jess chuckles, and both of his friends relent - maybe knowing that his humor has become a defense mechanism over the years, or that pushing him against his own grain is bound to fail.


	5. Chapter 5

Poe prepares to settle back into the slow ritual of winter, getting up in the morning to bring water to the chickens, fill B.B.'s bowl, and head down into the cold cellar to drag up the day's food.

It's not the life he'd pictured as a kid, this sort of off-grid existence where his days in the spring, summer, and fall are over-full on the the idea of getting ready for the long, cold sleep of winter.

B.B. gives him a lazy, resentful glance when it's time to go out.

"Well, it's not very exciting for me, either," Poe reminds the dog.

His first change had crumpled his dreams and no matter how long he'd managed to hide it, it meant he lost his pack's support in the air force and - promising pilot or no - when you were a werewolf in the armed services, you were part of the pack or you were gone.

He'd been bounced so fast his head spun, and as a lone wolf in his condition the future would have been short, if Leia hadn't been willing to take Poe as a favor to Kes.

He checks his watch at the thought. He hasn't called his father in a while. He thinks Kes is stationed in Hawaii now. About as far away as he could get.

Poe doesn't resent him for it; he's an old military dog, an army man. The rift had begun between them when Poe chose the air force, and grew when Kes found out Poe carried his mother's curse. It's not a divide of hatred, or even a lack of love between them.

Kes needs to defend his place, which is a matter of pack politics. And, Poe thinks, there's guilt there. Guilt that Kes had known the possibility of such an outcome for his children, and had one anyway. Guilt that he was powerless to fix it.

Poe carries his steaming coffee mug down into the yard and lets himself into the chicken run. The birds are holed up in the coop, huddled for warmth beneath the heat lamp hung high up in one corner. 

He checks the timer on this to be sure it's still functioning, stirs up the hay to expose a clean layer of bedding, and claims the two fresh eggs and the frozen bucket of water. He takes all of it back to the house while B.B. noses around in the snow.

"Just not very exciting at all," Poe sighs to himself, scrubbing the water bucket in the tepid sink water before refilling it.

Normally, a guy his age would be right in the middle of his productive years. Maybe earning glory, maybe raising a family. Poe, with no real chance for either - though he'd _tried_ all through his twenties - has surrendered to this early retirement. 

Once his secret was out, what opportunities weren't closed to him with outright cruelty were gently excused away.

'We're not sure you're a good fit-'

'-it says here you were dishonorably discharged, can you explain-'

'If it were up to me, I'd say yes, but you make the other wolves nervous, so...'

So, here he is, doing his best to live in a place that requires no outside influence.

Subsistence farming. Hardly his dream, _hardly_ glamorous, but it was manageable. 

_Over the years,_ Poe thinks, carrying the bucket back out to the coop through the crunching, calf-deep snow, _the thought 'it could be worse' has come to drown out everything I don't like about my life, as thick as this snow underfoot._


	6. Chapter 6

By the evening, he's forgotten all about his melancholy. There's enough to do even on a winter day to keep Poe from wallowing in his thoughts. He skips lunch to do a mend on the kitchen plumbing that he's been putting off for a day that requires a useful distraction.

Today qualifies.

By the time he's done he feels better - he's used his strength and solved a problem and proved that he doesn't need anybody else, emerging half covered in grease and dust.

It's very satisfying.

Enough that routine is good enough for the evening. He makes dinner, then settles down with his book, losing himself in the exciting world of Jack Reacher for a little while. He likes the fast pace of the novels, even if he has to admit they're pretty cliche, and maybe the author talks about guns a little too much. They're easy fantasies to indulge in, so Poe does. He likes getting completely wrapped up in them.

He's right at the climax of the book when Jack is beating up some 'roided out madman with his bare hands when someone knocks on his door.

Poe looks up, irritated at the interruption, and a strange, fierce anger follows. Change ripples under his skin, very near, and then realization sinks in.

He's been trying so hard to pretend today is an average, routine day that he's forgotten it _isn't_.

The knock is probably just Snap or Jess making sure he's ready, that he'll be alright. He shakes off his irritation and opens the front door.

"Hey, Poe," Finn says, standing easily on his front doorstep again with his hands in his pockets. "So, look, I guess your pack goes on hunts on full moons, and I don't know anyone too well yet... I was hoping I could be part of your group?"

"My-?" Poe says, lost. He understands what Finn is asking, but the earnestness of it makes Poe very aware of the fact he has to say no - and that he doesn't _want_ to. He doesn't want to disappoint Finn, and every submissive instinct tells him he doesn't say no to someone with more standing than he has, but this isn't that kind of situation.

"I can't," Poe manages, and he's aware of how stiff that sounds, how hollow.

Finn's expression crumples - just a little, but it's clear he's disappointed.

"Oh," Finn says, and then seems stuck. "I'm sorry - if you had other plans..."

Poe's resolve wavers. A clean break with no explanation would be kindest to both of them, making himself the bad guy would give Finn a personal reason not to come back. Even so, he finds he doesn't have it in him to let Finn walk away hurt.

"No, buddy," Poe says, feeling put on the spot. Edgy, since his change is so near. "I don't have a group."

Finn brightens. "We could go out together, then. I mean, if that doesn't bother you - just until I learn the boundaries. I don't want to cause any trouble."

"Didn't anyone tell you that you had to stay away from me?" Poe asks, suddenly tired. Dammit, was Finn going to make him _say_ it?

Finn shakes his head. "Some of the others don't seem to like you, but I don't get that. You've been nice to me."

Maybe that's where Finn was wrong.

"Well," Poe says, "I'm cursed. And as far as they're concerned, if you hang out with me, you'll be cursed, too."

"What?" Finn asks.

Poe lets his anger build to a head on the wave of primal sensation that his change rides on. He can't help it, even as he feels it turn him into a bitter, unfair monster to someone whose only crime was innocently believing the best in him.

"I don't go out on the full moon," Poe says, controlling his tone. "I can't go with you, and it's better if I don't, anyway."

Then, before it fully overcomes him, Poe swings the door closed and locks it, hoping either Snap or Jess can explain the rest to Finn, before the transformation surges up from under his skin and the full-moon drive overruns his senses.


	7. Chapter 7

When she wakes, Poe is aware that she's outside, that her body is cradled by the snow and warm all along her back, that she's been asleep for some time. To the wolf part of her mind, this is just as it should be, content and warm and sated with the sensation of a full belly. She's run a long time tonight, and her body isn't used to it. It aches for freedom and exercise, and never seems to feel enough land pass under her reaching paws.

To the human part of her mind, slower to wake up, many things are glaringly wrong. It's still night, though only because it's November - the nights are nearly longer than the days. The moon is setting. She's _outside._

She surges up onto her feet, dislodging a weight from her side and losing all of the warmth she'd been curled up into.

When she wheels around, a strange wolf is curled up in the snow, sleeping deeply and curled around the depression her body had left. For an instant, she wonders if she'd killed him. That was how this went, wasn't it? Change into a werewolf, wake up in a pool of blood?

Except, both her minds discover together, there's no blood. The other wolf - a brown, umber dark shade of fur and big. Loose limbed. The other wolf is still breathing, deep and even. Asleep, with a full belly.

They'd just curled up and - well, gone to sleep. Together. To her instincts, this is satisfactory. Pleasing. He'd been warm, they'd found a hollow under a bare, snow covered bush, and settled in. Just that easy. 

It's the human part of her that understands _nothing_ can truly be that easy.

She has to - to get back inside before the sun comes up, has to hope nobody else saw her, especially not with another wolf.

Turning, she wiggles out from under the bush and tries to get her bearings, feeling anxious and frantic. She scents the wind, turning this way and that, seeing only unfamiliar woods - were they even still in pack territory?

That shoots a cold fear down her spine before she finds an old scent trail from earlier, her own, and hopes she can trust herself to get back home.

Poe's tired, almost exhausted, the way it is common to be after a full moon. Most wolves in her pack will spend the next day recovering. But she forces herself to run anyway, using her anxious energy to power her limbs until she can smell the familiar scent of the pack's well-marked territories, and then chickens and dog and _home_.

She doesn't find her front door open. _Must've left the dog-door unlocked, dammit!_

Poe lets herself in the same way, pushing through the flap. It's not warm inside - the fire has gone out. B.B. greets her with a wagging tail and doesn't look twice as she resumes human shape.

Thoroughly transformed, Poe finds himself dirty from head to toe. His hands and bare feet are muddy to elbows and knees, his naked body now splattered with the contents of his fur - cold and half frozen. He shivers, leaning back against the kitchen door and tries to get himself together.

He can't let everything fall apart _now_.

"Get it together," he tells himself. "Probably no one knows."

It's desperate - and he can hardly assume that whatever wolf he'd denned down with was ignorant. _Someone_ would know Poe was out there, or at the very least a strange, female wolf.

"God," Poe says, shoving it all aside. He doesn't remember a lot - that's the way it goes on the full moon. Wolves are wolves, and the pack does as wolves do. No one worries about it too much. Except Poe.

He forces himself to move before his skin freezes to the door, but his tired body only gets him to the couch. The blankets he'd left for Finn are still there, and Poe drops himself down into them, curling up in the old warmth of the hearth and Finn's lingering scent and finds it comforting and familiar.


	8. Chapter 8

B.B. wakes him up by dropping the dog bowl beside the couch, letting it clatter pointedly against the wood floor. Poe blinks his eyes open, and squints into the sunlight, momentarily disoriented.

It takes him a long moment to figure out why he's on the couch, and why it feels like he ran a marathon last night. Then, it comes back to him and he pushes his face into the pillow and groans, deeply. Heartfelt.

_Maybe my luck_ does _suck_ , he thinks.

B.B. picks up and drops the bowl again, tired of Poe's sluggish shenanigans.

"Alright, alright," Poe mutters, picking his stiff body up off the couch. "Chores first, then I can beat myself up, I get it."

The floor seems to be about seven miles away as Poe bends down to get B.B.'s bowl. He finds yesterday's clothes in a heap on the floor where he'd probably left them, and goes through the screaming-muscle ordeal it takes to get his boxers on.

He fills B.B's bowl, and the dog starts eating out of it before Poe can even get it on the ground.

"Man," Poe tells himself, alone in the kitchen as he leans his wight against the counter. "Am I an idiot or what?"

B.B. doesn't even look up. Poe sighs, with a heavy heart and the worst full-moon hangover he's ever had. He goes over the list of things he needs to accomplish today.

He should eat, he should feed his livestock and water the plants in the sunroom, and do all the regular Tuesday chores. All he wants to do is take a shower and get back into bed. The rest of the pack will be out and about soon, and if anyone saw him out last night he can expect a lecture. 

Especially since he was out with another - with _Finn_ , if he has to guess.

"Jeez," Poe says. His mind can't come up with any other summation of the situation. _Shot to shit,_ his dad might have said. 

B.B. finishes his food, wagging his tail at Poe before he heads out through the traitorous dog door, letting in a blast of cold air.

Poe turns on the radio, turning the volume up enough that he'll be able to hear it in the shower, and fills the water reservoir before he climbs in. He doesn't want to run out of water until he's really done showering. He wants to hide in there a good long while, listening to the blues.

At least, after all that, Finn _knows_. It's about the worst possible way to find out, but it was real and honest and undeniable.

Poe pulls a twig out of his hair and remembers that there was a warm, relaxed form curled around his own when he'd woken up last night the first time, and how nice that had been.

Then he watches mud flow down the drain and hums along to 'Nobody Loves Me But My Mother', reminding himself that the truth has _always_ ended things for him.

_Now you see why I act so funny, baby,_  
When you do the things you do,  
What I wanna know now,  
Is what we gonna do? 


	9. Chapter 9

Finn plugs into the music as soon as he wakes up, taking advantage of Snap's offer of a secondhand pair of bluetooth headphones and a previous-generation ipod. It seems like an anachronism out here in the isolated Maine woods. Any reminder of where Finn grew up was. 

He understands the meaning of the gesture - and very quickly the real reason behind it after the first time Kare visits.

Music had always helped him think anyway, and the howling wind and whispering pines seem almost overwhelming out here otherwise. Especially after last night.

Last night. A lot to process, even for a full moon. He knows - as much as he's ever sure about anything in wolf-time on a full moon - that Poe was there. He'd - _she'd_? - just appeared out of the snow after refusing Finn at his door. The scent was the same.

It makes sense, in a stupid way, the way that most of the rest of the pack talks about Poe now. Poe's attitude is a little more understandable, too. It had seemed weird, from the get-go. Ackbar had shoved Finn out of the longhouse in a rush and insisted on Finn meeting all the rest of the pack as soon as possible.

Since then, even though it's only been - _wow, three days? No, today is four_ \- he's seen a small, tight-knit community that reminds him of the ideals his old pack preached with none of the forced rigidity of hierarchy.

It's a community, and he rarely sees anyone alone. They help each other, spend time together. Snap's close friends Kare and Jess seem to be in and out of his house constantly, and while Finn knows some of it is an excuse to scope out the newcomer, the genuine knowledge that they're always welcome is real.

So the ill-fitting piece of this community puzzle is Poe, the border-guard with his house way out on the edge of the pack's territory and no partner for relief, suspiciously absent from every social event.

Plus, the way they avoided talking about Poe, like he was a leper or something.

All because of some old superstitious curse nonsense. Around here, they take it pretty seriously, he guesses. Finn, while he'd hardly say his First Order upbringing was ideal, had been taught that superstitions are useless echelons of the past and that werewolves have to reach forward to some regimented ideal of the future. 

He sighs, sitting uselessly in Snap's sunroom - there are a lot of plants growing in here, but no heat except the sunlight so he's huddled in a blanket but it's the best place he's found to be alone. He likes the green growing things, even if he's pretty sure some of it is marijuana.

Freddy Mercury plays sad piano chords in his ears, and he thinks of Poe and his blues.

_Don't expect me_  
to behave perfectly  
and wear that sunny smile 

So, maybe in the First Order, Poe would have been just another cog in a violent machine that was expected to perform perfectly. It's hard to tell if that's any better than this. It hadn't felt good at all to Finn.

There'd always been something in his soul that ached to get out of the city.To feel something other than concrete under his paws as a wolf.

_That_ part - running in the woods and chasing Poe in the snow, feeling another living wolf beside him that he wasn't _assigned_ to, there just because they both enjoyed each other's company - that part had been perfect.

It felt that way anyway.

But then they weren't wolves anymore - or they weren't _only_ wolves anymore, and Poe had run off like she -he? - might infect Finn and - well. It's a mess.

Had he done something wrong?

The music plays on, turned up so Finn doesn't hear the sliding glass door behind him open, doesn't notice that someone else has come in until the pale blue plant lights come on and chase away the early evening gloom.

He pulls one headphone and turns to find Snap looking at him expectantly from the sliding door into the house.

"Sorry," Finn says automatically, realizing Snap probably called him. "I lost track of time. Am I in the way? Can I help you with anything?"

"Getting your Queen on, huh?" Snap asks, grinning.

"Yeah, guess so." Finn says.

"You've got good taste," Snap says. 

Finn shrugs, feeling his ears get hot when Snap catches him. Hard to keep music choices a secret when you're surrounded by people with keen hearing.

"It's your music."

"Well, I have pretty bad taste, so you found the diamond in all the Brittany Spears and Lady Gaga," Snap says, winking. "Still, 'I Want to Break Free' is pretty specific - penny for your thoughts?"

"We don't use pennies in Canada," Finn says.

"Aha," Snap answers, triumphant. "The shell cracks at last. Canadian, huh?"

"Sure," Finn says. He knew he could divert them from his internal agonies by dropping sparse hints about his past.

"You don't have an accent," Snap says, prying.

"Neither do you. I haven't heard anyone say 'ayuh'," Finn says. "Steven King lied to me."

Snap laughs. "Sure. There's no demon trucks or langoliers up here either."

The conversation stalls a little when Finn finds he has no energy to keep up his cheerful front. He takes a deep breath. As best he can tell, Snap is Poe's friend. He and Jess are the only ones who haven't tried to covertly warn him away from Poe, or clammed up entirely when he mentioned Poe's name.

"So, I saw Poe last night," Finn starts, hoping Snap will pick up the conversation, because he has _no_ idea how to ask about it.

That stalls Snap as he does a little mental arithmetic, his round, expressive features changing to something a little more guarded.

"You _saw_ Poe last night?"

Finn wonders if that's bad - if he'll get Poe in trouble by saying it. Poe had said something about staying in on full moons.

"Yeah, he-" Finn struggles. What if he's just confused, or wrong?' " _she_ and I-"

"Whoa," Snap says, gently. Surprised.

Finn stops, uncertain. But he knows from the look on Snap's face that he's _not_ wrong about this.

"It's not Poe's fault," Finn says, quickly. "I asked him and he said no, so please don't get him in trouble."

Snap looks over Finn once, slowly.

"I won't tell anyone," Snap promises. "But what you saw - you better talk that over with Poe."

Finn _wants_ to, but he's not sure he'll be welcome.

"Uh," Finn says. "Is that going to make it worse? That old guy says I shouldn't bother - I guess he was saying I shouldn't talk to him."

Snap makes a wry, displeased face. He steps closer, crouching down next to Finn's chair.

"Look," he says, as if he's confiding a secret. "I think you know, just like I do, that the whole curse thing is bullshit."

Finn nods.

"But it's been repeated to Poe so often, used against him for so long that he believes it," Snap continues.

"Why?" Finn asks.

"Hell if I know. They say he's bad luck, but the only unlucky shit that happens to him is what other people _do_ to him," Snap says, in a tone that's got an old, quiet anger in it.

"That's not right," Finn says.

"I guess not," Snap agrees. "But Poe _is_ different, and some people - some wolves, I should say - can't handle that."

There's a long pause. Finn lets it sink in.

"I guess what I mean is, if you can handle that you should go over there - but only if you can. If not, now that you know the real scope of what it really is and what it really means to the rest of the pack, don't go. No one will hold it against you. Not even Poe."

That thought is almost _too_ sad to handle, but Finn supposes it's kinder than losing a friend if you didn't have many.

"How will I see him?" Finn asks. "I mean, he tried pretty hard to shut me out last time, what if he does that again?"

Snap looks up at Finn, giving him a conspiratorial wink. 

"There's a dog-door."


	10. Chapter 10

Poe gets done late because he started late. For all that, he does get done. It leaves him with a sick, empty feeling in his stomach, like waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's restless and anxious. He cleans up the blankets and pillows from his couch, shoving them in the washing machine like he can erase the traces of Finn still in his life by folding them away out of sight.

He's not hungry - probably his belly is full from hunting, which is a strange thought. Usually - _usually_ , on a full moon he stays locked inside. Sometimes his wolf self chews into the bag of dog food and then paces the house for hours. Not glamorous, but practical.

Then again, maybe eating rabbits and squirrels or whatever isn't really glamorous either.

Once, an entire sack of potatoes had disappeared. He tries not to think about it. It's not like he does his changed form any favors, so the minor inconveniences his shifted form leaves him with are only his fault, on the dual sides of his nature.

B.B., sensing his mood, shadows Poe around the cabin as he tries to find things to do. He's too restless to read, and because he'd slept in so late he isn't tired, either. If he was still living in the city, he'd go out to a bar or turn on the T.V. and let infomercials run until he felt his own I.Q. dropping. There's no cable out here, so he doesn't even have a set. Just a radio.

Poe settles down in his chair, and B.B. lays on his feet, trapping him.

"Weird day, huh B.B.?" he asks. The dog rolls an eye up toward him and heaves a sigh.

Poe feels restlessness crawling under his skin, and plants his cheek against his palm, staring listlessly into the fire.

The dog door flaps closed in the kitchen, and B.B. lifts his head. Poe's heart struggles upward, relief that there'll at least be _something_ to do. He hears the change of claws to bare feet, a heavy enough step that it can't be Jess.

"Hey, Snap," he says, without getting up. "You're up late."

"Uh, no..." the voice isn't Snap's. Poe goes tense, and Finn peers in from the kitchen, leaning around the door frame because he is completely _naked_ in Poe's kitchen. "It's me, sorry. Can we talk? Snap said I should-"

He gestures at the kitchen door in a motion that's all bare strong shoulders and pectoral muscles and Poe is equal parts moon-wired and desperate because he can't take his eyes _off_ the guy.

"Uh," is all Poe can manage.

Finn looks suddenly apologetic. "Is it a bad time? Your light was on, so..."

"No," Poe says. He needs a solution - _what is a solution to a naked man in your kitchen?_

_That's a problem?_ his traitorous mind supplies, unhelpful. Poe shakes himself.

"No, it's an okay time," he says. "I wasn't sleeping anyway." _Not helpful._ "I was just thinking," _He's still naked this isn't helping._ "Aren't you cold?" - _nope, stop looking at him!_ "-there are robes in the closet."

_Better._ Not perfect, but Finn disappears back into the kitchen and Poe resists leaning forward to watch him go.

He pushes his hands against his own face and reminds himself that he is _32 years old_ , and it's not the first time he's seen a naked body.

Finn's gone for a few moments longer than necessary.

"The blue one," Poe calls, because he thinks he will probably _die_ if Finn comes back in Jess' kimono, and while that would solve a lot of problems, it wouldn't stop his embarrassment any sooner. 

Finn reappears, this time wearing Snap's oversized robe and still somehow stretching the shoulders, tying the belt around his waist and looking anxiously at Poe for approval. As if he might have the wrong blue robe or that might matter.

"Okay?" Finn asks.

Poe tries words again. "Okay."

"We need to talk," Finn says. "Is now a good time?"

"Okay," Poe repeats, and then he realizes that's a word that's happened a lot in the last ten seconds. "Yes, alright."

And by some miracle, Finn understands him and comes into the living room and sits down.


	11. Chapter 11

Poe feels - and fights - the urge to make any excuse to get out of the room, now that Finn's sitting in it. He's not this cowardly usually, there's just something in him conditioned to avoid such awkward situations. Probably because 'awkward' for Poe was a short hop-step from dangerous.

"So," Poe says. "Sorry I uh, shut the door in your face yesterday."

It's a tentative step onto mutual ground.

"It's okay. I guess I kinda surprised you, huh? I know better than to do that on a full moon," Finn says. "I'm not upset by it."

Poe thinks this is still safe ground. He still has some chance of plausible deniability. He takes a deep breath and leaps out into the void of understanding.

"Well, and then I guess I went and did it anyway," Poe says, feeling things out. 

"I knew it was you," Finn affirms, but there's no sign of upset or outrage. "You still smelled the same."

He pauses, and chuckles, looking up at Poe. "Little bit of mixed signals, there."

Poe supposes it would be - as far as it seems to be, on a full moon when he's transformed, the wolf's mind sees nothing wrong with herself. It leaves Poe the custodian of his own unruly other half. He fidgets uncomfortably, lowering his gaze away from Finn's and finds his eyes stuck on Finn's bare _knee_ , exposed by the robe.

"Sorry," Poe says again.

"Don't be," Finn says. "I had a good time. I mean, I get it. I'm the new guy, sticking my nose in where it probably doesn't belong. _I'm_ sorry if I made you uncomfortable. We both know how things get when it's, you know, wolf auto-pilot."

It's an ironic choice of words.

Finn continues, "so, I'm sorry if I took advantage - or if I did anything you didn't want me to."

"Well," Poe says, because honestly he doesn't remember but signs point to nothing objectionable. "Did I bite you?"

"Mm-mm," Finn says, shaking his head. "No, we didn't fight."

"Then you're fine. I may be a little weird - and honestly unsocialized, but all the instincts work right," Poe says. "I can defend myself."

He has, in the past.

"Okay," Finn says, understanding. "But if you don't want me around your shifted form..."

"It's," Poe starts, then hesitates. It's a lot of things. Awkward, embarrassing. Unlucky. He finishes with, "complicated."

"Yeah," Finn says. Poe drags his eyes up from Finn's - very handsome - knees and up to his eyes, expecting to see sympathy. Pity, maybe. Veiled disgust. Instead, he smiles and confides, "I'm a little complicated, too."

His smile is kind, willing and Poe's desperate old heart is pawing frantically at the door in his soul now. Still, Poe knows better than to jump ahead without knowing for certain.

"This is gonna sound a little obtuse," Poe says, "but what exactly are you saying?"

Finn actually looks a little nervous. "I was kind of hoping we could be friends?"

Poe _wants_ to be. He sits back, surprised by the request - he's never had one like it before. Questions, he'd expected. Maybe an apology and a goodbye.

Not this, not really. But Poe's hesitation causes a reaction he doesn't expect, an anxious sort of supplication in Finn. This _matters_ to him, it's not just a hollow gesture.

Poe rushes to reassure him - he's already made things difficult for Finn without ever really intending do, and Finn has come back anyway -learned Poe's not-so-secret-secret - and he's still here now.

"It's not that I don't want to," Poe says, thinking that any chance to deny his interest vanished the evening before. As a wolf, she'd made a bee-line for what she wants. "Its just, well, to put it simply you'd lose almost the whole rest of the pack. I'm unlucky."

"I dunno," Finn says. "I don't believe that just because other people say it."

Poe stifles a bitter laugh. "You'll be surprised how unlucky you get if the whole pack wants you to be."

Finn shrugs. "I got out of a pretty bad situation. I'd like to try my hand at charting my own course and making my own luck."

He smiles, and it's a cheesy line that Poe knows has very little basis in reality, but Poe _has_ to smile back. It's a call-and-answer that his body is eager to respond to. A warmth between them like they'd shared in the snow.

"Thanks, Finn," Poe says.

Finn actually winks at him, and something in Poe does a high dive off the tall board.

"So, uh, usually my friends bring over a robe so I can keep it in the pantry," Poe explains, indicating Snap's bath robe. "I'll see if I can't find you one."

"Do all your friends come in the doggy door?" Finn asks, looking amused by the thought.

Poe chuckles apologetically. "Yeah, I'm afraid so. It's the easiest way to get out of a really long lecture."

"No offense to the way your pack works, but I'm an adult," Finn says, wrinkling his nose. "I thought my lecture days were long over. At least until it's time for my kids to get a few."

"In small packs, it seems like nobody has anything better to do than be in each other's business," Poe says, telling the eager part of his soul - _Finn wants a family_ \- and knowing that pretty much puts a stop to his amorous overtures.

Finn shakes his head. "That's going to take some getting used to. In my pack there were lots of orders, but otherwise we minded our own business."

"Okay," Poe says, leaning back, ready for some slightly less intense conversation. "You know my secret, and it's pretty much the only one I have. I'm dying to know yours."

Really, he just wants Finn to sit on his couch by the fire for a while and chase away his loneliness so he can pretend to have just what he wants for a while. 

Finn looks pleased to take the invitation, and Poe wonders why he'd ever bothered trying to shut Finn out.


	12. Chapter 12

Finn enjoys the process of learning to understand Poe. He's different, guarded and careful with all the real parts of himself but still so kind. He has every reason to be bitter and distrustful, but having accepted Finn into his confidence he never once wavers. It had been a sort of slow, careful and deliberate ritual.

Finn's had a lot of acquaintances before, but none of them required this preamble before. He's never felt so rewarded for something he's worked for as he does every time Poe smiles at him.

It's awesome.

Besides, it's better than sitting around Snap's house all day, and it turns out that when being helpful is Finn's choice instead of the irrefutable law of the pack, it feels pretty good. He's learning a lot, too, about this kind of life.

"So, what's the black one's name?" Finn asks, bent almost in half in the chicken coop to help Poe shovel out dirty hay for compost - he's learning that they don't really waste anything out here.

"The black one?" Poe asks, looking up at Finn from his place by the wheelbarrow full of clean hay that he's been unloading.

"Yeah. She's got crazy feathers on her head," Finn clarifies, pantomiming a spray of feathers with his fingers. 

Poe's confused expression is pretty cute, Finn thinks. It says his mind has been miles away from chickens.

"Is there more than one black chicken?" Finn asks, teasing.

"No," Poe says. "I guess I just never really thought of naming them."

Finn looks at Poe, then shovels a load of dirty hay into the wheelbarrow now that it's empty.

"So none of the chickens have names?

"Not officially, no," Poe says.

He looks good working, like all his troubles are gone for a little while. His eyes get all dark and focused, and he really gets into what he's doing. Today, even though it's still cold out, Poe's got his sleeves rolled up.

"Okay," Finn says, playing along. Maybe the man didn't like to admit he named his chickens. More likely, they all had ridiculous names. "So, unofficially, what do you call the black chicken?"

Poe looks straight at Finn, and he gets the most incredible smile - like Finn's just set himself up for a home run. His eyes wrinkle up at the corners, wolf-wicked.

"Rooster," Poe says, with complete honesty.

Finn laughs at his own mistake, at Poe's mischievous smile - and the fact that somehow, Finn doesn't feel like an idiot over the rookie move.

"Okay, so it's a rooster," Finn says, laughing. "You have a dog named B.B. King, but your chickens are just all named 'chicken' and 'rooster'?"

"I didn't say Rooster was his whole name," Poe reveals. 

"That's the Poe I know," Finn says. "Let me guess, 'Rooster Cogburn'?"

"A western fan," Poe says, without affirming or denying.

"You do know it's 2016, right?" Finn teases.

"November. For another week, anyway," Poe agrees. "But Rooster is six years old."

Then he seems to hesitate - like the fact surprises him. He goes quiet, and for a few long moments, they just work.

"So," Finn says, breaking the silence again before it goes on too long and Poe gets that sad look he sometimes does. "I may not know much about any of this, but I have it on pretty good authority that you don't need a rooster to get eggs."

Poe gets all of the dirty hay in the wheelbarrow, and then climbs up into the coop to help Finn spread clean hay over the floor. It's not a very big space, so they rub elbows a little. Secretly, Finn likes it - moving out of such a large pack and into a small one meant he had a lot less contact.

Finn wishes he could convince Poe to play - to roughhouse a little, but he's not sure how to ask.

_Probably two wolves messing around inside the chicken coop is like, every chicken's worst nightmare so, time and place..._

"No," Poe says, spreading hay loosely into all the nest boxes and corners. "But you need a rooster if you want more chickens."

The prospect of hatching chicks - of being here and with Poe and his pack for long enough to see that happen - and all of the things that will happen in between - excites Finn more than he would have thought possible.


	13. Chapter 13

For the first few weeks, Poe finds Finn everywhere. Where the visits from Jess and Snap happened enough to be habit - once or twice a week with periods where Poe knew their lives were just too busy - hardly a day goes by that Finn doesn't check in.

Between Snap and Poe, they've partially outfitted Finn with hand-me-downs. Finn's grateful, and honestly he looks better in Poe's old leather jacket than Poe ever did.

He looks better still in the slightly-too-small jeans, but Poe keeps the thought to himself. He'd found an old house-coat for Finn too, after a dusty half hour in the cabin's crawlspace yesterday. It hangs on a newly installed hook in the pantry, a sort of new promise that Finn's always welcome.

Poe hasn't made any progress on his book at all, and it'll be due back at the library soon. He sets it on the counter in the kitchen as a visual reminder to renew it, and fixes extra coffee - his habits of years are already changing.

Almost on schedule a dark muzzle pushes through the dog-door with an inquisitive 'boof?', and then Finn is easing into his kitchen. He sticks at the hips, paws reaching for a hold on the tile.

"Uh," Poe says, as Finn wriggles and twists, trying to find the right angle to yank himself through. It's too ridiculous for Poe to really handle first thing in the morning. "You stuck, buddy?" 

As if in defiance of Poe's words, Finn pops all the way into the kitchen, suddenly recovering grace and dignity.

"Okay," Poe says, "maybe I need a bigger-"

Finn yelps at him, looking directly at Poe and demanding his attention. His tail - it has a distinct shape, curling up and over loosely to brush against his back - is now wagging. Playful.

"I can-" Poe starts, about to volunteer to leave the kitchen so Finn can get decent.

Finn barks again, cutting Poe off and drops down suddenly on his front paws, spreading them wide with his back legs straight, tail high and waving. A half-bow, enticing Poe to - well, play, he guesses.

"Huh," Poe says, tempted in spite of himself. "You know, I'm not any good at this."

As a kid, before his change, he'd been as much a wild, rough-and-tumble kid as any other. Maybe a little more due to werewolf predisposition for physical play. Never as a wolf, though - he'd hidden his shifted form for two years before suspicions got too strong.

Finn doesn't seem to care. Maybe it's a little embarrassing, but Poe can feel the way play - normal bonding and contact - calls out to something inside him. Finn probably feels that, too - he's been away from his pack for a while now.

Poe sucks down half his coffee to fortify himself and reaches into the back of his mind, where the wolf lives, embracing a voluntary change for the first time in well, years.

By the time all four of her paws touch the floor, the change is complete. It's not as wild as a moon change - Poe keeps much of her awareness. Enough to know she needs to shimmy out of her sleep bottoms, and she's barely done that when Finn's bulk impacts her and the match is on.

As a wolf, the concept of being self-conscious or uncertain is entirely unimportant. _She_ knows what she wants, and as their bodies impact, slide on the tile, as open mouths gently clash and close on parts that count like fencers marking points in a duel, she's pleased.

It scratches and itch that's been just out of her reach for a long time, and fills her awareness with contact and scents and the satisfactory strain of working muscles and tested strength. In the end, Finn wins but it's a near thing - Poe has him pinned to the floor and it's a bite on her haunch that takes the last point in an unofficial and unmoderated game.

B.B. watches them both from the living room, disgusted - he'd been run over in the first few minutes of chase-and-tag. Poe decides she'll make it up to him later, settling down on the tile to catch her breath and cool off.

Finn does too, relaxed and panting, his mouth a happy shape and tail still curled up over his back. Poe wonders if this is what she's been missing all along - and why more wolves can't just be like Finn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 


	14. Chapter 14

They're nearly to the December full moon when the first signs of trouble manifest.

In the back of his mind, Poe knows that things can't go one forever as they are. Finn had spent the holiday with Poe - with Snap and Jess and even Kare coming over through the front door and sharing food while football played on the radio.

It had been so achingly, joyfully normal that Poe had a premonition then of this day, ten days later.

This time, the knock on his door is at the front, heavy and sharp. It startles a bark out of B.B. and the feeling echoes in Poe.

On the other side, he finds Statura - not welcome, but at least it's not the whole Alpha's council, meaning that this will be a polite visit.

"Guard Dameron," Statura says, looking up at Poe from the porch, eyes dark under a fringe of hair that had gone grey early.

Poe averts his eyes politely, acknowledging Statura's greater station in the pack. "Good morning."

"Can I come in?" Statura asks, tone even.

Poe doesn't like it, but being part of a pack means that you respect the leadership structure - even if there's a mutual dislike between you and that institution, so Poe steps aside and lets councillor Statura in.

"I'm sure you know why I'm here," Statura says.

Poe has a pretty good idea. Strangely, it doesn't feel like as much of a threat as it has in the past. Maybe this is the security that Poe is supposed to feel in a pack.

"I got an idea, yeah," Poe responds, closing the door to keep the cold air out.

Statura stands in Poe's front hall and waits, as if Poe were a cub called to task and expected to recite the exact rule he's broken as a part of a route to better understanding. In the past, he might have behaved as he was expected just to get through this that much faster. Today, he snaps back.

"I got a question," Poe says, suddenly feeling a thrill that's equal parts defiance and cold fear. He's baring his teeth with his tail between his legs. 

Statura looks at him, disapproving, but willing to let Poe actually step out of line before he issues further correction.

"Why does it matter so much to you all?" Poe dares, drawing himself up straight. I mean, what's the real harm?"

Statura looks blandly at Poe, displeased by the challenge to his authority.

"It matters because your curse is one of lineage," Statura says.

"Yeah," Poe says, feeling his anger boil up. "So, what? Maybe it is, but you already took that out on my mother. You exiled her and -"

"That was before my time," Statura says. "Before Leia tore everything down and rebuilt it after what happened to Shara."

Poe's anger is a low, thick lump in his chest. It threatens to spill over into a full shift, to change him into that thing everyone seemed so ashamed of.

"I know that it pleases you all so much to see me miserable all the time for no reason," Poe begins, and he hears the snarl in his voice. "I _get_ that everyone's only happy if I'm here alone with my face in the mud-"

Statura proves himself to still be the fast, powerful wolf he'd been when they elected him to the council. His hand clamps down hard and fast on the back of Poe's neck, squeezing until the urge in Poe to change goes quiet, until he stops talking. The nail of his index finger presses over Poe's spine as he squeezes the tendons of Poe's neck warningly. It's the equivalent gesture to a bite - like correcting a puppy or enthusiastic youth.

He shakes Poe once, waiting.

"You seem to think that all we want is to run your life," Statura says, looking Poe dead in the eyes. "I have other things to do, too. I don't enjoy it either, you know."

Poe goes quiet, the submissive middle-pack instincts all firing as Statura displays his competent dominance.

"I'm trying to protect you," Statura says. "To _remind_ you that like every wolf in the pack, you have a place."

"Protect me _how_?" Poe asks, anger returning. "By isolating me and telling me I'm a horrible person for something I have no control over?'

"Listen to what I'm telling you," Statura says, releasing his neck. "Leia took this pack down for your mother. They haven't forgotten. Some of them are still angry, still looking for an excuse."

"They didn't need one for my mother," Poe says.

Statura steps back, tucking his hands behind his back. "I've been asked - elected - as the voice for certain aspects of our pack. Unlike the American government, I listen to the people I represent."

"Alright," Poe says, irritably. He resists the urge to rub the back of his neck.

"The reason they exiled Shara Bey was _you_ ," Statura says. "She passed on her curse, in their opinion willingly multiplying it, even though she knew how much strife she caused, and how much more dangerous it becomes in subsequent generations."

"She couldn't know fur sure if-" Poe starts, defensive.

"I'm not saying I agree with them," Statura says.

This surprises Poe to a halt. Statura stares at him, cooly unreadable for a few very long moments.

"If one of you tore the pack apart back then," Statura continues deliberately, eyes on Poe to be sure he's following along, "and two of you - well. They don't want a repeat - and neither do we. Leia might not be able to handle it again. Especially when there's already fear about Finn-"

"What?" Poe says, " _Finn?_ He's harmless, he just-"

"Just completely ignores almost all of the rest of the pack and disregards hierarchy and politics, disrespecting the will of the elders," Statura says, speaking over Poe in a flat tone. "He's made no effort to get to know anyone except you, and they know he's from the First Order. They're concerned that they may have to fight or die for a stranger if his past comes knocking. Worse, they don't know if he's a spy."

Poe feels defensive and angry. That's his _friend_. But, Statura is just the messenger. Poe and he don't get along, but for once, Poe thinks, This isn't just a lecture to put or keep him in his place. It's a warning that Poe needs to steer clear of a real limit, or he and Finn will both be facing consequences.

They're still werewolves, and their enforcement is, well, as expected. Shara Bay had been exiled, and then with no pack protection, the results were predictable. Kes never speaks about it in any detailed way. She's gone, and that was when the real rift began between them.

"What are you asking me to do?" Poe asks, trying to resign himself to the results but knowing there are some routes he'll just refuse to take.

Statura actually softens - his expression easing away from stony anger just a little, as if he's relieved that Poe can be reasonable.

"What makes them nervous is a stranger from a dangerous pack and, well, you," Statura says.

"Finn's an adult," Poe says, "I can't - and I won't - tell him what to do and what not to do."

"He's being spoken to, also," Statura says. "You're my more immediate problem."

Poe doesn't understand. Statura sighs, relenting some. The intensity in the room lowers. He reaches out again, and though Poe flinches away, he pats Poe's shoulder instead, in a faint, clinical reassurance. It's strange.

"It's December," Statura says, not quite a question. "Almost full moon."

Poe can't do anything but agree. He nods.

"Lots of October babies around here," Statura says.

When Poe finally follows, he has to hold back a groan. He could crawl out of his own skin _right now_. They were so upset and worried, so afraid of something they had never even tried to understand. All this windup and fear over something that couldn't happen. At the same time, it's humiliating; a depressing reminder.

"There's nothing to worry about," Poe says, keeping his tone flat, averting his eyes so he doesn't have to see the response in Statura. It's the truth.

Blessedly, Statura doesn't push on the issue. He's delivered something that's part warning and part ultimatum, and he needn't have done either. Yet, Poe remembers his earlier words - he's an elected mouthpiece. It's valuable insight into what factions in the pack are thinking.

When Statura turns to go again, he stops suddenly, hesitating before the door is opened. He looks back at Poe. "For what it's worth, I'm not going to tell Finn to stay away from you. Just to make a few other friends, too."

Then, like a fierce storm, he's gone, leaving Poe alone in his cabin.


	15. Chapter 15

Finn understands, on an abstract level, what Pack elder Ackbar is telling him. It even _sounds_ reasonable - just get to know the rest of the pack a little better. Except, underneath all that is an almost condescending message that Finn has been steered astray. That he doesn't know what he's missing.

Finn, with years of pack politics and respect-your-elders-or-they'll-bite-you trained into him, listens as he's expected to. He makes a promise to attend more pack social functions, and keeps the rest of his opinion to himself.

"We play poker at the longhouse on Thursdays," Ackbar suggests, in his rough-aged voice. Finn knows the invitation is only for him, and wonders if he brought Poe they'd be so obviously rude as to turn him away while welcoming Finn in. "And I know Snap's group could use another runner, this full moon."

_They sure do love to dance around everything here,_ Finn thinks. He _almost_ misses the simplicity with which the order would have been delivered in the First Order. He says, "I have plans on the fourteenth already."

He _does_ , in fact. Poe doesn't know it yet, but he's pretty sure that even so, he'll go along with it. He's been looser, more relaxed around Finn lately. Unfolding all that wolf from the stuffy little handbasket she's been confined in for all these years.

Ackbar frowns at Finn, his eyes intent as if he's trying to figure out how much of this is dense incomprehension and how much is willful disobedience. Finn thinks he's trying to figure out if all his lecturing has failed to penetrate, and he looks like he's winding up for another approach.

"But I'll be at poker this Thursday," Finn promises, quickly. Poe wasn't wrong about his pack being overly interested in each other's free time. But, they had taken Finn in, and even though they didn't seem to _like_ Poe, they kept him, too.

He'd heard from Snap and Jess that other packs were far less tolerant. Apparently, the curse was supposed to intensify over generations - or _something_. In the past, wolves like Poe were exiled, driven into desperation, or killed outright. It meant there were very few wolves like Poe. 

"And if your plans fall through this month's hunt," Ackbar says, pleased that Finn is taking at least some of the hint, "don't forget Snap. He could use a good influence."

Finn holds his opinion on that to himself - Snap _is_ a good influence. If only more of the younger members of the pack would sway over to Snap's accepting nature, he thinks the older members would relent, rather than causing a big rift in their pack and families.

But, that's not exactly Finn's place - and Poe clearly isn't really interested in a crusade waged on his behalf.

"I'll see you at the game," Ackbar rumbles, by way of goodbye.

Finn can bet that if he got a talk, it's likely Poe did, too. _It probably wasn't as polite as mine._ He considers what to do about that for about ten seconds.

If he lets all this posturing drive them apart, he's no better than the rest of the pack, and he _likes_ Poe. Really likes Poe. Maybe he doesn't need a protector, even if the instinct is there for Finn - but he needs a friend. 

The longer Finn stays away, the more doubts will creep in. He picks up the jacket Poe's given him, and he turns off all the lights behind him. Snap's given him custody of the guest bedroom, but he's out of the house a lot of the day. Through conversation and observation, Finn's learned that he's the pack's handyman, and out here in the middle of the woods that means winter's a busy time for him. 

So, Finn doesn't waste electricity, which he's learned is kind of a sin around here. No one's home means no lights on.

It's dark already when Finn heads out, with no sign of stars or the moon overhead. The air is frigid cold. He'd guess if it's not below zero, it soon will be. The walk down from Snap's cabin on the trail through the woods takes a long time. Long enough that Finn wishes he'd put his fur on before he came out, except he wants to walk up to the front door and go in the proper way in defiance of God and everyone, tonight. 

_But maybe I should ask around if anyone has some spare gloves._

When he gets there, his fingers are practically numb and his old boots - a holdover from his flight from the First Order - are soaking through. He pauses to pick up another armload of wood from the healthy pile out back before he knocks.

B.B. doesn't bark, and Poe swings the door open abruptly a few minutes later anyway, and Finn gets to see his expression change from guarded irritation to relief and joy to see Finn.

"Hey," Finn says. "Thought you could use some company."

Poe smiles, this bright brilliant I-can't-believe-it smile he gets when Finn treats him like he deserves to be treated.

"Yeah, buddy," Poe says, soft and easy and warm as he holds the door open for Finn. "You know, I really could."


	16. Chapter 16

It doesn't happen because they plan it that way, Poe's pretty sure. Finn and he compare war stories about the day's talks, and Finn had carefully examined the back of Poe's neck, as if expecting to find a real bite there.

His fingers are cold, but soothing. Poe stokes up the downstairs fire.

Then, out of nowhere and everywhere, it begins to snow. Really snow - within an hour of Finn's arrival, the world outside the cabin is blinding white beyond the porch lights.

"You better stay the night," Poe says, trying to remain practical about it. 

"Okay," Finn says, a little too quick-and-eager for casual. "Will Snap get worried?"

"I'll let him know you're here," Poe says.

"You don't want to go out in that," Finn says, sounding worried. "Not even as a wolf."

"Nah," Poe says. "We'll use the twilight bark."

Finn looks lost and intrigued. "What's that? We go outside and howl a message, and everybody passes it along?"

He looks so _earnest_ , Poe thinks, and he's really _trying_.

"I'll show you," Poe says.

In the hall closet, there's a small desk on the side not occupied by Poe's two coats. On top of it is an old relic from Poe's childhood, a gift from his Dad that had become the project of two summers. A ham radio.

Not completely private, but he and Snap use a frequency they're pretty sure doesn't attract any other attention. 

"What's that?" Finn asks. "Some kind of telephone?"

"Not quite, but it does the trick," Poe assures him.

He fires off a quick signal in Morse code, hoping Snap hasn't turned off his set. Jess has one too, and several other members of the community, though Poe knows they use different frequencies. There's always the chance of unexpected listeners. 

Poe repeats the signal twice more before Snap picks up, sounding blissful even over the radio waves.

"Yello," Snap says, to stop Poe's Morse signal. "You good out there, Poe? Looks like we're in for nasty weather."

"Just a little snow," Poe answers, leaning around Finn to glance out the windows as he wonders about his chickens.

"You say a little snow," Snap says. "Weather service says a big blizzard. Your generator gassed up?"

This is news to Poe, but hardly surprising. "Yeah buddy, I've got gas. How about you? You okay on food? How big did they say?"

"Over twenty inches," Snap reveals. _Big._ "Are you offering me some of that jalapeno jelly?" 

Poe laughs. "I tell you what, you come get it in all this and it's yours."

There is a pause while Snap thinks about it.

"You drive a hard bargain, Dameron," he says. "If this goes on more than a day, I'll come get some."

"I radioed to let you know that Finn's here with me," Poe says, mentally taking a tally of jars in the cold cellar. He thinks there are four left. Enough to spare at least one.

"Oh yeah?" Snap says. "Good. I thought it was awful quiet here when I got back. He can stay there and keep an eye on you. Hi, Finn."

Poe turns the handset toward Finn, gives him a grin, and presses the transmit button for him.

"Hey, Snap," Finn says, leaning over Poe's shoulder and all along the length of his back in the tight space. It sends a thrill up Poe's spine, red-hot and bright.

"Actually, Kare's over here too," Snap reveals. Perhaps that's why it took him so long to answer, _and_ why he hadn't noticed Finn wasn't there.

Poe arches his eyebrows and supposes her timing and the blizzard were fortuitous. He shouldn't call back unless it's really an emergency.

"Alright, well, you two keep warm," Poe says, making a mental note to keep Finn maybe an extra day or so.

"Stay safe," Snap answers, and then Poe hangs up the handset on the u-shaped hooks.

"So, sleepover, huh?" Finn says, when Poe turns around. He doesn't move out of the closet, leaving Poe _really_ close.

He shifts back, tailbone gently impacting the table the radio is on, causing a faint rattle. Finn is so close that the small difference in height means Poe has to tip his chin up and expose his neck a little, just to meet Finn's gaze.

"Yeah," Poe agrees. "Maybe for a couple days."

"It's going to make people mad," Finn says, with a bright, eager smile. His brilliance is so near, Poe can feel how warm he is.

"Well, maybe it'll stop snowing by Thursday," Poe says. The sudden crazy urge to change, right here in the mess of things where he'd have to do it pretty much right on top of Finn begins to take hold.

Finn laughs then, and moves away to let Poe out of the confined space, reaching up over Poe's shoulder to turn off the light by the dangling string.

"So what do we do? Tell ghost stories?" Finn asks.

Poe thinks that sounds like a great idea.


	17. Chapter 17

It's how they end up on the couch together with all the lights off but the fireplace warming and illuminating the room. Even with the fire going, it seems just the right weather to creep closer. Some magnetism draws them in.

Finn starts it, by casually throwing a blanket over both their laps and then tucking up his bare feet, right against Poe's thigh.

Now, it's the full deep of night and Poe's half-laying in Finn's lap, seduced by the easy contact and darkness and Finn's lulling voice.

_Hell with it,_ he thinks, as Finn's hand gently passes through his hair. _Maybe we can't have a family for whatever reasons, but he's young. I'm young....ish. Who said everything has to be that serious?_

Finn's touch is gentle, soothing all the way down into the core of Poe's soul. Whatever had been pawing at the door in his heart has now burst through. He _likes_ Finn. A lot. And he's content to curl up quietly and be liked in return.

Sure, later it would probably get complicated, but for now they're safe. Alone. _Together._

And, well, it is December - there's something to be said about indulging your biology, at least a little. Poe hardly feels it as strongly as Jess - as conversations between them have revealed - but the impulse is there. 

Probably, Finn senses it a little. Low line, at the edges of his awareness. His nails scratch just enough to be enticing and satisfying on the back of Poe's neck - gentle grooming that's a far cry from the reprimand Poe had gotten earlier. Poe's breathing is slow and even, his heart beat steady. The quiet and soothing overtakes him utterly.

Finn pauses - he's telling a ghost story about a bar, and a man wrongfully accused of assaulting the barkeep's daughter - now hung and haunting the place. But then his voice stops shy of the payoff and he leans down, his body pressing close over Poe's body, and presses his mouth against Poe's temple. It's soft, warm contact somewhere between unexpectedness and impatience.

Finn leans back a little, seeking eye contact. "That okay?"

He looks worried, earnest. There's such a churning mix of emotions in his eyes, a combination Poe recognizes all too well - it's been pacing around in the back of his own thoughts for a few weeks, probably since Finn had first come back after the full moon.

Poe eases onto his back in Finn's lap, reaching up to hook his hands around Finn's neck and pulling him down with clear intent. Finn leans down easy, like it's the most natural thing in the whole universe. There's not an instant of confusion between them, they just come together and their mouths meet, like they both had the same thought.

Poe's body gets warm and he lifts his other arm around Finn's neck, opening his mouth against Finn's. The kiss deepens but stays so, so gentle as they explore each other for the first time like this, as their tongues slide and stroke against each other.

Poe can't quite seem to catch his breath - Finn's scent is surrounding him, warm and spicy with shared excitement and intermingled with the regular smells of Poe's day. They're already that entwined, that involved.

The kiss goes on and on, even at the awkward angle,a nd Poe strokes his fingers over warm skin at the back of Finn's neck, curls his fingers into the wooly embrace of his hair. Finn's got one hand under Poe's neck now, the other resting flat on his belly.

Finally, they have to lean apart. Poe's dizzy with lack of air and how much Finn seems to surround him - touch, taste, smell. He blinks his eyes open, smiling helplessly.

"That means 'okay'," Finn presses, smiling back. "Right?"

Poe laughs; it just washes over him with a sweet, good feeling of warmth.

"Yeah," he says, reaching up again. "That definitely means 'okay'. Really okay. Always okay."

Finn's fingers move idly in his hair, and he grins. "I thought so."

"No mixed messages here, buddy," Poe assures him. "Any time you want."

"C'mere," Finn says, shifting both their bodies on the couch until they can lay flat, his back against Finn's front, just sharing contact and warmth.

It's easy, comfortable. Finn's hand is scooped against Poe's belly, just below his ribs. It's like when they'd woken up together in the snow, all tangled up.

"So, where do we go from here?" Finn asks, with his breath warm over the most intimate part of the back of Poe's neck.

Poe knows what his instincts say. _Forward, full tilt, don't stop until they reach the other side. Do not pass go, do not collect $200._

But the instant they put a label on it, it develops a sort of ticking clock stigma in his mind. If there's a structure, it can be torn down. It will be, eventually.

Poe doesn't want to waste what this is, right now while it's new. He doesn't want to spend the time agonizing about the long days of Summer ahead. He wants it, wants all of it, before it falls apart.

He turns over in Finn's arms, tangling their bodies together.

"It's cold outside," Poe says, pulling up wry humor. "Stay a few days."

"Is this the part where I sing that old Christmas song?" Finn asks, smiling from just inches away, beautiful. His expression is almost serious in a sweet way. Tender.

"Sure," Poe says, pulling them together again. "We'll sing a duet."


	18. Chapter 18

Finn wakes up in the middle of the night, with a stiff back and the sense that time has passed. Beneath the blankets, all the places he's pressed against Poe are warm. But his feet - exposed to the ambient air - are cold. The couch is just shy of spilling them both off, even as close together as they are. 

He holds out as long as he can, watching Poe sleep against his chest with the low golden glow of the firelight playing over his skin, picking out glinting highlights in his curly, sleek black hair. His face of free of worry or concentration. Peaceful, and Finn thinks this is the first ime he's really seen Poe with his guard down. 

It feels thrilling; illicit and special.

They'd rolled around a lot, got hot and bothered over the sort of stuff Finn hasn't done since he was a teenager. He'd liked the way their bodies fit together, the spaces against his skin that Poe seemed to fill. It hadn't gotten more serious than that, yet. The cold and late had lulled them both to early, sleepy satiation.

Besides, Finn's got some idea that Poe's probably pretty new to this. He's okay with taking it at Poe's pace.

Maybe upstairs, in bed, where there's actually room to do so.

Finn shifts, wondering if he can disengage without waking Poe up - there's another blanket over on the easy chair, and Finn needs to pee. Poe opens his eyes when Finn moves. It's slow and sleepy and beautiful.

"Sorry," Finn says, running his hand down the curve of Poe's back. Poe arches up into the motion with an easy, lithe stretch. 

"No need to be sorry," he says, sleep-gentle. Finn can feel his voice through the contact between their chests. "Did I put your legs to sleep?"

"Nope," Finn says, "but you are hogging the blanket."

Poe arches his brows a little, tipping his head in amused acknowledgment. "It's my blanket."

"Oh, I see how it is," Finn says, watching fondness crinkle up the corners of Poe's eyes with old joy-lines.

"There's other blankets," Poe says, making no motion to get up so Finn can reach them.

"I got a better idea," Finn says.

Poe looks at him with an amused light in his eyes, folding one hand under his chin and against Finn's chest. The intent of the gesture is clear - he's listening.

"You let me get up," Finn begins, detailing it as if he's laying out the plan in a heist movie. "I go to the bathroom before anything unfortunate happens. Then we go up to bed." 

"Those are my blankets, too," Poe says.

"But they're a little bigger," Finn answers, playing along with the game.

"We'll have to share with the dog," Poe tells him, groaning as he gets up. Sleeping in the confined space was getting to him, also.

"The dog will have to share with us," Finn agrees. He takes Poe's outstretched hand and sits up. The shift in position and gravity gives rise to an urgent feeling in his bladder.

"Well, we're all canines here," Poe says, and then gives a convulsive shiver as the cool air sucks heat off his skin. He picks up the blanket they'd been sharing and wraps it around his shoulders.

"Hold that thought," Finn says, hearing the tightness in his own voice before he excuses himself to the bathroom.

Outside, it seems strangely bright through the small, high window. Light reflecting off the surrounding snow. He can see it's still falling hard, and he's no stranger to snow storms. This one's a doozie.

Finn's never been this pleased at the prospect of being snowed in before. Maybe it's a cheap, flimsy excuses, but Finn doesn't mind even if it's cliche. Better to spend such cold days with someone close.

Poe's looking out the window at the front of the cabin, with the blanket still around his shoulders and no lights on. Finn can see the outline of his profile; the way it looks so serious, even when Poe's relaxed, with his guard down in his own home.

It feels more intimate than all the heated slithering they'd indulged in earlier. Maybe it's as deep as they'd get tonight, no matter what else happens.

"What's it look like out there?" Finn asks, easing up behind Poe and framing his body with his own.

"It's really coming down," Poe says. Then, just like that, he leans back against Finn. They fit together again. "What'd you do in the city when it snowed like this?"

"It's not so different. Shovel out the walk and driveway, and then wait for the plows to come," Finn says. Then, playfully, he adds; "spend a little extra time in bed, _keeping warm_."

"That sounds pretty good," Poe says. "Let's do that."

He starts to turn to go, heading for the stairs up into the loft, and Finn catches his wrist. 

"You don't have to," Finn says, because he has good sense.

Poe looks at him, with that half-wild and daring expression that Finn's seen him get before he dives into something; that look means no one, not even his own self preservation is going to hold him back.

"I want to," Poe says, firmly. He adds, to punctuate, "I want to, with _you_."

Finn tries to remember that this is an important conversation as his heart speeds up and a helplessly pleased smile tries to overtake his features. 

"Right," Finn says, grinning. "Okay, but there's no pressure."

"Finn, you're making me nervous," Poe says. "There's no pressure for you, either, if you don't want to."

"I just want you to know you're in charge," Finn says.

That turns Poe's expression first to surprise, then a wicked sort of pleasure that leaves Finn with the same feeling he gets when he wags his tail. He hadn't expected that, for some reason. maybe because while Poe's clearly in charge of this little scrap of territory, that's all he's ever been allowed.

"Alright," Poe says, reaching out to pull Finn against his side and under the blanket. "Well, if I'm in charge, I'm going to seize the initiative."

He pauses, turning his body in Finn's arms, lifting the blanket around Finn's neck and pressing their bodies together. He leans up to kiss Finn quickly.

"I'm going to be a tyrant," Poe promises, leading Finn upstairs and into the loft.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured I wouldn't torture you; here's two chapters today. :)

Poe is rushing Finn through it as if he goes fast enough, his inexperience will disappear. He gets so far as to disrobe them both in the warm space under the covers. The sweet, cold-electric feeling of eager and early lust surrounding them.

Finn's hands are big and warm and broad on Poe's back. Assertive in the way Poe likes, pulling their bodies against each other as if they belong close together. They fit just right, Poe's body sliding over Finn's as he opens his mouth against Finn's skin and pulls in the scent and taste of him - wolf-primal and strong. He licks at Finn's neck and at his belly, tasting the sweat springing up there.

Then he gets Finn's cock in hand, and hesitates. He knows what he wants to do, but he's sure there's some method beyond enthusiasm. Finn picks up on this right away.

"You okay?" he asks.

"Kinda new at this," Poe admits.

Finn pulls him back up for a kiss then, instead of laughing or sighing or getting frustrated. He pulls them both together gently.

"We can take it slow," Finn says.

Poe feels violently averse to the idea. "I can do this."

Finn laughs - but it's not a malicious sound. His hands ease into Poe's hair, stroking down over his neck and shoulders. It soothes something in Poe; fortifies him. He tosses the covers up and slips down through Finn's grip, getting a hand on his cock and licking a broad stripe over the head. It's not the way Poe expects it to be; velvet and soft and warm. Finn reacts to the touch through his whole body rocking his hips up gently. Poe feels victorious, enticed to continue. His next taste brings more of what Finn really tastes like, painting a musky salt-stripe over his tongue.

It's captivating. He closes his eyes and gets into it, licking and kissing over Finn's length while he's groaning, shifting under Poe's attentions. Poe can feel the way Finn's body tightens up slowly, in increments. it winds and winds until Finn's hands settle against Poe's shoulders.

"Poe wait," Finn says. "I'm going to-"

And sure, it's early but they have a long night, and maybe a long dark day afterward, all alone here in the snow. Besides, backing off would be like quitting, and Poe's never been big on that.

Finn doesn't push him away when Poe hums understanding and sinks down deeper on his cock , hand curled around what he can't get into his mouth.

"Okay," Finn says, high and tight like he's pep talking himself into it. "We're really doing this... okay..."

The last repetition is a gasp, and Poe feels the way Finn's muscles bear down and lock up, the way release pumps through Finn's cock and over his tongue before the pungent, overwhelming taste paints the back of his tongue in slick and bitter; too much and too thin to swallow it all. Poe has the presence of mind to pull back - _he did warn me_ , and stroke Finn through the rest of the way through orgasm, resting his cheek on Finn's thigh and watching his bared teeth give way to bliss. Poe feels pretty good about it, even if his mouth tastes a little like an old sock.

"You okay?" Finn asks, grinning down his chest at Poe as he catches his breath and sees Poe watching.

"You look good when you're happy," Poe says.

"You too," Finn says. "Sorry. I tried to warn you about..."

He makes a vague gesture that encompasses - his own flagging penis and Poe's presumably messy face.

"I deliberately ignored that warning," Poe says, grinning, wiping his chin and mouth on the sheet.

"I got that," Finn pants. "Tastes pretty bad, huh?"

"Just really strong," Poe says. He eases up over Finn's heaving chest and pushes their mouths together to show him. It just seems like the right answer to give.

Finn rolls Poe over onto his back, laughing. "You can't gross me out that way."

"I was just demonstrating," Poe says, wanting Finn to touch him everywhere. To curl his hand around Poe's cock and stroke, and press kisses to his skin or just rub against him.

Every touch is so electric, Poe feels like he could get off just from that. The wolfish part of himself wants all this contact - and more. It's satisfactory to some part of himself so long unsatisfied that Poe has convinced himself it's no longer there. 

Finn obliges him, pulling Poe up along his body and sliding his leg between Poe's, giving him something to rub on, to press against for friction as Finn kisses him again. 

"Ready for more?" Finn asks, as Poe ruts and slides against him. 

"Thought that was pretty obvious," Poe gasps - when did his voice get that rough and desperate sounding? He presses his cheek against Finn's strong chin, trying to stay as close to him as possible.

"Alright," Finn says, Poe can feel the edge of his smile against his cheek. "Just making sure.

"I'm sure-" Poe starts, but then Finn gets a hand curled around Poe's cock at last so bright bliss floods his system, and sweet stars melt into his blood.

"Oh," Poe breathes, arching instinctively up into the firm, warm grip. Finn's hands aren't rough, the skin along his palm is soft and hot where he cups it against the head of Poe's cock and rubs. He alternates the motion, which boils up a response through Poe's body to leave it bursting beneath his skin, with long, squeezing strokes.

" _Yes_ ," Poe sighs, and it's fast after that - sensations like he's never felt before all gathering in his belly, riding low over his thighs until it spills out, before he can even think to hold it back.

Poe catches at Finn's pumping bicep with his hand, curling his fingertips into smooth, hard, honest muscle and hangs on. He does not quite howl. A low sound pours out of him, instead. Throaty, more a sensation working it's way out through his chest and mouth, an escaping pleasure like the release he feels painting his own belly.

When he can unglue his eyelids from each other and drift back down into his panting, euphoric body, Finn is watching him with such a sweet, intense expression that Poe actually shivers with it. he smiles, lazy-happy, and strokes his hands over Finn's back. There's a sensation of _rightness_ in the back of his soul, a place that wants that tenderness; that wants to answer it _with_ tenderness.

"Hey," Finn says. "You look good when you're happy."

"You look amazing up close," Poe says, the honest truth. "Why don't you stay right there where I can look at you for a while."

Finn laughs and Poe feels it through where their bodies are touching. "You're a mess."

Poe circles his arms around Finn's middle, pulling their bodies together with the hollow, flesh-meeting sound of their bellies impacting. Finn grunts, and then laughs.

"You can't gross me out that way, either."

"Now you're a mess too," Poe informs him. "And since you made me a mess to begin with, you started it."

"Are you saying you want to make an even bigger one?" Finn asks, playful.

Poe feels buzzing, happy, _good_ \- a strange pleasant energy fills him from his veins outward, and this time _he_ starts the wrestling match.


	20. Chapter 20

Later they wake up together after hours in each other's company, comfortable and quiet. Poe's warm, sprawled and half-tangled with Finn still. He opens his eyes slowly, content and comfortable.

It's still dim. Overhead, the skylight reveals a uniform plane of shadowed snow covering over the glass, but Poe's pretty sure it's the morning. The _late_ morning.

His body is satisfactorily sore, like he's been exercising, which he _has_. Every instinct tells him to roll over, hide his nose under the covers and go back to sleep.

"I think B.B. is hungry," Finn mutters.

Poe lifts his head to peer over Finn's chest, and sees the earnest eyes of the dog, nose pressed pointedly against the exposed patch of skin on Finn's shoulder. His eyes bore an intense hole in Poe, and when he sees movement, his tail thumps on the mattress. Hopeful.

"You're completely obvious," Poe tells B.B.

The dog lifts his head as if he knows he's going to get his way, ears perking. Poe sighs, and starts to get up, climbing over Finn. Finn pulls Poe down and kisses him as he crawls past, stroking his fingers through Poe's hair fondly.

"We should take a shower," Finn tells him, smiling softly, like he's making a promise.

"Do I look that bad?" Poe laughs. He can feel the way his hair is disrupted, the gritty feeling on his skin.

"We both do," Finn says. Poe doesn't agree - Finn's hair doesn't look like it's out of place at all, and his eyes are still bright, pleased, even after a night of more sex than sleep.

"If I can have a cup of coffee in the shower, I'll feed B.B. and meet you there," Poe says. 

Hearing his name, B.B. barks once, sharply, agreeing. Finn nods and gives Poe a solid thump on the ass, more sound than sting, to send him off with luck.

Downstairs, Poe turns on the coffee pot and fills B.B's bowl, setting it on the floor. It's a normal morning, Poe thinks, looking out his kitchen window as Finn pads up the hallway and into the bathroom. It's normal, but somehow so much more complete.

Outside, there's a thick sheet of snow on everything, and the sky is steel gray like a promise for more. Enough, Poe hopes, to give Finn an excuse to stay another night. After Poker.

He pours a cup of coffee and joins Finn in the shower, cup in hand.

"Should we call Snap again?" Finn asks, passing Poe the soap as they both squeeze into his shower stall.

"Mmm," Poe says against the rim of his cup, considering. "Let him call us."

Maybe, he thinks, it's going to change a little. Maybe it's time to put in a bath tub.


	21. Chapter 21

"So, uh," Finn starts, a couple of days later, after the storm has passed. He'd made it to poker on Thursday, the last night it had snowed. Everyone seemed to have plenty to talk about that wasn't him or Poe. He was glad about the weather then, for more than a few personal reasons. It was like Ackbar said - he should try to fit in a little better.

So he does, and he finds that - aside from that prejudice and their avoidance of Poe altogether, they're friendly, pleasant people. 

He'd helped a few of them dig out again this morning before coming to visit Poe, listening to endless stories of blizzards past told like cherished local folklore.

"So," Poe prompts, giving Finn a big smile.

The weekend at Snap's place had seemed unbearably long, but at least Kare had cleared out by the time Finn returned. He'd seen a parallel there, and he supposes he has to guess - an _educated_ guess anyway - about what that meant about the upcoming full moon and Poe.

Poe leans against his shoulder as they stand in the kitchen, waiting for Finn to be ready. The contact is so comfortable, so relaxed and willing that Finn wants to forget his question and let the chips fall where they may.

"What do you want to do about the full moon?" Finn asks, jumping right in with both feet.

Poe looks at him, all bright mischief, and asks, "how do you feel about doggy style?"

Finn has to laugh. "Okay. I set myself up for that one."

"You did," Poe agrees.

Finn likes this the most - this happy, playful side of Poe. He's funny. He takes care of his little - what? farm? homestead? - with fierce determination and a lot of skill, but he's been willing to share that with and teach Finn. To help him learn the new skills he'll need to survive outside the city.

But, it had been a serious question. Finn looks down at Poe again, and tries just going for it. 

"Are there going to be any complications, since it's, you know - this season?" Finn says. He means to be an adult about it, to say it like he's not a silly puppy, but he blushes anyway. Because it's Poe, and he likes Poe,a nd the outcome of this conversation is pretty important.

Poe's expression changes slowly, closing down and becoming more guarded.

"Hey," Finn says. "Whatever it is, I don't mind. I still want to be with you, I still want to spend time with you, I just think we should really be ready before - well."

He shrugs. He means, they should be ready and not accidentally start a family. That sort of thing should be planned. The relationship is amazing, but it's brand new, and Finn's just starting to make his way amongst the pack. He doesn't even have his own place yet.

"Yeah," Poe says, working his lower lip between his teeth once. His whole mood has changed, but he doesn't seem mad, just worried. 

"Come sit down," Finn says, tipping his head toward the living room. Inviting Poe to sit down in his own house. It'll be more comfortable than standing in the kitchen.

Poe sits on the end of the couch, and B.B. jumps up next to him, sensing his mood. The dog puts his head in Poe's lap, comforting, and Poe absently strokes his hand over B.B.'s head, carefully seeming to consider his words.

"So," Poe says. "I guess the easiest way to say this is that there's no need to be careful."

"Okay," Finn says, thinking he'd like to know a little more than that, but trusting Poe to tell him the truth. It might be that the rest is none of Finn's business or that Poe's not ready to share yet. Finn doesn't press - he tries to project that he's willing to listen to exactly what Poe is telling him.

"I can't have kids - like," Poe struggles a little, trying to find a way to explain. "Okay, like calico cats? You know how they're mostly all girls, and they can have kittens. But, every so often there's a boy calico, and they can't? The curse - or whatever it is - is like that. Mostly the opposite of how I am, like my mother was."

Finn doesn't actually know that much about cats. He's pretty sure he understands what Poe is saying, though. 

"Okay," Finn repeats, absorbing this information. "So, that's not so bad."

Poe looks at him like Finn's reaction is not at all what he expected. Finn tries to put him at ease with a smile and a shrug.

"Does it really bother you?" he asks.

"Honestly? No. I'm not so keen on the idea of passing this curse on, and even less keen on carrying a pregnancy," Poe admits. "It sort of jars against who I am."

Finn can see it - the reminder of his differences as a constant daily presence where he's already been made to feel ashamed of it for so long - it jars against what Poe's built for himself in spite of that.

"Then, that's okay," Finn says.

"Don't you want a family?" Poe asks, sounding a little baffled.

"Well, yeah," Finn says. "Someday. But it's a little early in our relationship to be worrying about all that, right? I think so, anyway."

Poe nods.

"Look," Finn says. "I like being with you. I want you to be my boyfriend. My packmate. More than that, I'm glad you're my friend. It's actually kind of a relief with the full moon coming up that we can still take things at a sane pace without somebody having to go into a kennel."

Poe looks - shocked, a little, but not in a bad way. He looks relieved, like he's going to be okay. Finn reaches out for him and pulls him close.

"So why are they all so worried about you if you can't pass on the curse?" Finn asks, rhetorically. Poe shakes his head against Finn's shoulder, like he doesn't know either.

"Well, I'm not worried about you," Finn says.

"Not at all?" Poe asks, with a touch of humor in his voice.

"Worried? No," Finn says.

"What about scared?" 

Finn snorts. He tells Poe, "You're not that big, you know."

Poe turns in his arms, looking up at Finn in playful offense. Finn, satisfied with his choice of mate, kisses him until he forgets to be bothered by anything.


	22. Chapter 22

The full moon doesn't sneak up on Poe this time, and Finn talks him into running loose, carefully out of the way of the rest of the pack. Just the two of them - not an uncommon way to hunt in the winter months.

She feels the snow under her paws and the wind hin her fur and the joy of running as far and as fast as she can. Of having pleasurable company to chase and challenge and entice.

She doesn't make it easy, but in the end she lets the big brown wolf catch her, and the rest is all instincts.

After midnight, she surrenders reluctantly to her human half, and follows the scent trail she'd left back home, trotting alongside her companion.

She knows she'll never have to spend another running night alone, and that means things are finally as they should be. She and her mate return to their den, under the slowly lightening sky.


	23. Chapter 23

That's really the start of it. The notion in Poe' s mind that it could be real and permanent. When he wakes up that first morning after a full moon and doesn't feel afraid of discovery, doesn't wake up with the frustration of a caged animal in the back of his mind, and thinks; _how nice if this could happen every time._

The rest - safe, warm, naked, a little lost as to why he and Finn are sprawled out on the living room floor - that's typical werewolf stuff.

"Good morning," Finn says.

"Uh-huh," Poe agrees, taking stock. He's sore, but in a good way. He's full, and this time he doesn't think he ate an embarrassing amount of produce.

"You wanna get up?" Finn asks.

"Uh-uh," Poe says, indulging a little lazyness. 

"Gotta get up sometime," Finn says, softly, fondly.

"Sure," Poe agrees. He pats the bare patch of Finn's chest under his palm affectionately and Finn shifts beneath him, untangling his hands from underneath Poe to curl around his shoulders.

"Not yet, huh?" he asks.

"Did you leave your clothes here?" Poe wonders aloud, lifting his head just a fraction to look as if he'll spot them somewhere.

"Yeah, upstairs, I think," Finn answers, tracing warm distracting patterns against Poe's skin.

The urge to close his eyes, press his cheek into Finn's chest and just be touched for a while is overwhelming. Poe reaches to smooth his hand over Finn's strong cheekbone, pushing his thumb over the handsome features appreciatively.

"Are mine up there?" he asks.

Finn laughs at him. Poe feels the way the smile forms under his fingertips, easing over Finn's whole face.

"Probably. Why, do you need them?"

Things will change some when - if - this becomes a routine. For now, it's still beautiful and new, and Poe wants every second of it to stay in his mind. Maybe it's just the last flush of the heightened emotions a full moon brings, but Poe feels utterly content.

"Finn," he says, after a moment. Acting on wild impulse.

"Mm?"

"Will you stay?" Poe asks. His voice doesn't waver, but he doesn't sound completely certain.

"I can't even get up right now," Finn laughs. "Forget what I said about you not being very big, you sure throw your weight around."

Poe laughs - it feels good. Right. "You said I was in charge."

"And you warned me you'd be a tyrant," Finn remembers. "I believe you now."

He pauses, grinning brilliantly and adding, "I kinda like it."

"I kinda like it, too," Poe says, lifting himself up over Finn, looking down at him. "What I meant was, why don't you stay with me, instead of at Snap's?"

Poe watches realization of his offer slowly transform Finn's expression from understanding to real consideration. Finn takes his time, without rushing, to think about it.

"I don't want to impose," he says.

"Nah," Poe says. "I like having you here."

There's other things they should consider, like what the Pack will think, and if Finn will need to be authorized to be a border guard as well. But the first step is making the offer.

"I like being here," Finn says.

"Besides, I can keep teaching you how to survive on a farm," Poe offers.

"You just want the free help," Finn teases. "Alright. You got it. It's not like I have a bunch of stuff to move."


	24. Chapter 24

Poe thinks, overall, it could be going worse. He'd remembered to bring Leia a big cup of coffee, and taken the extra step of sacrificing a quarter pound from his stash for her to brew in her own pot. He'd regret it, if another big storm keeps him from replenishing his supply in Houlton.

Leia takes both and tells Poe it was about time. Her tone suggests she isn't happy about the complaints that are bound to come from the news spreading, but she'll back his corner.

He's kind of hoping any opposition will peter out quickly when it becomes obvious he's not going to pass anything on. 

"You can deal with Statura," Leia tells him. Poe thinks that's the better end of the bargain, now that he's fairly sure that Statura hadn't been lying about not hating Poe.

So, he walks home afterwards feeling pretty good. Helps Finn pack all of his hand-me-downs into a single box at Snap's, and then drives him back to the cabin they're going to share with the chains on his tires crunching through old slush and ice on the dirt-pack road.

Easy as that.

"Christmas is gonna be great out here," Finn says, looking out the window at the deep woods as the trees slide past.

"Really?" Poe says, surprised to remember it's coming so soon.

"Sure. No angry shoppers, no fighting for parking spaces," Finn says.

Poe laughs. "There's not much of anything, actually. I usually just play a little music on the radio."

"Do you decorate?" Finn asks.

"My mother used to," Poe reveals, thinking back to a time when his family had actually all lived together. "Especially when Dad would be home."

"Did she grow up out here?"

"Well, yes. I did, too, but my family lived way out on the other end," Poe says. "Where no one would see us, I guess."

"Sorry," Finn says, in a quiet tone.

"Nah," Poe tells him. "We can't do lights out here, but I think I saw a box of ornaments and decorations in the crawl-space when I found that jacket for you."

"I think we should put them up," Finn says.

"You know," Poe says, as he pulls up to the cabin, "I feel like there's a lot to celebrate, too."

Finn nods. He picks up his box of clothes and smiles.

"Besides, we can get all cold putting up the decorations, and then warm up by the fire," he says, shameless.

It sinks hot claws into Poe's thoughts, warming his blood under his skin.

"I'm feeling chilly already," Poe purrs, and inside, Finn pulls him into his arms.

Eventually, the decorations do get put up.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder that there is an animal death tag on the front of this fic and it applies to this chapter.

Something about the tone of B.B.'s barking pulls at Poe's awareness. There's an upset, desperate sound to it that draws Poe out of the cabin in the middle of making coffee. If it's a bear, he wants to get B.B. inside. The dog stops barking when Poe opens the back door, looking over his shoulder at Poe nervously.

At first glance, Poe doesn't see anything out of place - he's looking for a big, dark shape like a black bear, or maybe a fox or racoon.

B.B. paces an anxious circle, looking up at Poe and then out. Toward the yard enclosed around the chicken coop.

Then, Poe sees it. There's a streak of red in the snow - a big one. The whole run is churned up. Poe takes the two back steps down at a run while B.B. stands nervously behind him. The gate - a tall, chain link swing door meant to keep the chickens in and the predators out - is practically torn off the hinges.

Poe's heart sinks. _A wolf did this..._

The coop is a mess of frozen blood and feathers and limp bodies. Even the heat lamp has been knocked from it's hook, flickering on and off valiantly from it's askew position.

Numbness overtakes Poe at the senselessness of it. Why _this_? Was it his own pack warning him? Trying to threaten him into compliance? To force a rift between him and Finn?

He finds Rooster Cogburn out in the yard, the source of the red streak in the snow. There's not much left, but Poe knows it's him.

It's his whole flock, many he's had for years - since he'd made his first efforts to set up something he could live on out here. The first year, when Leia said he could stay, and he'd planted a garden and gotten a batch of eggs for his incubator. A very small start.

He's lost birds to foxes before. Hawks, every now and again. He tries not to begrudge the predators their take, but _this_...

This seems senseless. It's not a hungry animal, it's a threat. Anger rushes into him so fast at the sight of his rooster's body laid out in the snow that it almost brings a change on. A feral, _furious_ feeling that says there has to be a way he can fight back against this. He wants revenge - not just for his animals but for his whole miserable life.

He only realizes he's actually physically _growling_ when B.B. whines and nudges against his hand. Then, the bottom drops out of his fury, and Poe reassures his dog with a gentle pat.

He doesn't know what to do. Poe picks up the dead chicken, and leaves the run through the mangled gate. What if they come after him, next time? Or Finn?

That thought is colder than the frozen ground. Poe sits down and tries to collect himself, wishing he had a compass that would point him north again in moments like these.


	26. Chapter 26

Finn finds Poe seated on the back step and he can smell blood in the air, see how Poe's shoulders are hunched up. He knows something is wrong. Poe's holding something, looking at it with a shocked and distant expression on his face.

B.B. is whining, too, sitting to one side of the steps. Nervous.

This isn't the way Finn expected to start Christmas Eve. The look in Poe's eyes tells him it's bad.

"You okay?" Finn says, worried that it's _Poe's_ blood, that someone's attacked and injured him - the thought makes Finn's hackles rise.

Poe takes a deep breath, seeming to come back to himself.

That's when Finn realizes that the mess in Poe's hands is an animal - it's black feathers and splintered bone. _Rooster,_ Finn thinks, _Something killed Rooster._ His world spins a little, and he sits down next to Poe, puts his arm around Poe's shoulders. He pulls them together for fortitude as he looks up toward the run and coop he's been helping Poe tend in the mornings. Usually, by now, the chickens come out kicking up snow and picking seeds and grains out of it. Today, all he sees is an empty yard and a mangled gate. The cheerful coop now looks foreboding.

"What happened?" he asks.

Poe takes another deep breath. "Bad luck."

It takes Finn a moment to make sense of the words - to pull in all the context and the set of Poe's shoulders and then anger washes over him, sliding under a wave of sadness. He pulls Poe more tightly to him.

"I'm sorry," Finn says, closing his eyes. He can feel the tension in Poe's body, the way his muscles are tight beneath his skin to the point of tremors. Finn smooths his hand over Poe's back, easing his chest against Poe's shoulder. 

"Yeah," Poe says, bitter and angry. "So am I."

"I'll help you rebuild the pen," Finn offers. It's another obstacle, but Poe's gone on no matter how many obstacles life puts in his way. Besides, after a while of knocking Poe and Finn down, it will stop being worth their antagonist's while if all they do is rebuild.

It's strange, though Finn's spent time with the rest of the pack. They're pretty dedicated to isolating Poe - and his bad luck - but he hadn't thought they'd be outright violent. Maybe exile - which is _pretty_ bad.

"Thanks, Finn," Poe says.

"You want to bury them?" he asks.

"Ground's pretty frozen," Poe says. 

"If you want to do it, we won't let that matter," Finn tells him.

At that, he can feel some of the tension ease out of Poe, some of his frustration and anger dissipate. 

"It's alright," Poe says, sighing out. "It's a waste to bury them - lots of hungry animals out in the woods this time of year. Better they died for something else to live than just out of spite."

It makes sense to Finn. After all, out here everything was about being deliberate, about managing resources and being ready for the future - and letting nothing go to waste.

"If that's what you want to do," Finn says.

Poe nods, getting up. "Yeah. Thanks, Finn. I'd hug you, but..."

He's got a dead chicken in his hands. Finn gets it. He stands up, too, leaning in carefully to press a kiss to Poe's cheek.

Together they head out into the run. Finn gets the wheelbarrow empty of it's load of snow to help Poe clean up. His mate isn't wearing a jacket or gloves, but Finn knows a little bit about needing to do something no matter what the circumstances. So he helps, because it will get Poe' back into the warm house sooner.

Inside the coop, it's a real mess. There's no question that a wolf did this - there are huge tracks in the snow around the whole yard; clearly a big animal. Unfortunately, it's not like finger prints; there's no real way to guess who left them. Finn gathers up stiff bodies and places them gently into the bottom of the wheelbarrow, and then Poe takes them off to the edge of the property, into the space between the thick pines that surround the cabins collected loosely together on the pack's territory.

Something tugs at Finn's awareness. Some - scent? It's familiar - not the way the chicken coop usually smells; a bit like hay and feathers and earthy. All that is still present, under the more powerful scents of death and blood, but there's something _else_...

Finn adjusts the heat lamp, re-hanging it more securely and checking the cord. The light flickers, something inside the fixture has been jarred loose, but it holds out. Comes on and stays on, lighting the kicked up straw.

_We should probably clean it out completely_ , Finn thinks, looking around to see where to start.

Then his gaze lands on something that lifts his spirits. Nestled safely in the hay, and it's not the only one.

"Hey, Poe?" Finn calls, picking up two of the eggs, feeling that they're still pretty warm. Poe leans into the side door, looking cold and disheveled, but not as miserable as when Finn first found him.

"Are these still good?" he asks, displaying the eggs he'd found in the hay. 

By the way Poe's eyes light up, Finn thinks they may just be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I should be able to give you guys 2 chapters a day as part of getting this whole fic up by the end of the month. Some days will have long-ish chapters toward the end, I'll try to give you two on short chapter days (like today). Thanks again for coming along on this ride with me!


	27. Chapter 27

Poe drags the incubator up from the cold cellar and sets it up next to the Christmas tree where it wont have to work as hard to keep the eggs at the proper temperature. He leaves the eggs on the counter while it raises to temp, feeling anxious. He's got six others from the last few days, not quite a dozen that have any chance of hatching.

He tries not to get his hopes up, but Finn's not helping that much, clearly excited to see the process.

"How long until they hatch?" he asks, watching the temperature and humidity gauge in the Hovabator slowly raise. "Man, does this mean we've been eating fertilized eggs?"

Poe's suddenly reminded that Finn's been in the city most of his life, with all his food coming from a supermarket. 

"Yeah," Poe answers the second question first, appreciating Finn's attempts to distract him. "There's no real difference between a fertilized and unfertilized egg unless you incubate or refrigerate it."

"Really?" Finn asks.

"Yup," Poe says. "There's a - like a ten day period after the egg is laid. Put it in the fridge and it's just an egg. Put it into an incubator and you'll probably get a chicken."

"Just like that?" Finn asks, looking at Poe as if he might be pulling some kind of elaborate farm-related prank.

"Well, it takes about 21 days of the right temperature and humidity and turning the eggs pretty frequently," Poe explains.

"Twenty one days, huh? When will we know if it's working?" Finn asks.

Poe's satisfied with the incubator's ability to reach the appropriate temperature. He double checks with a thermometer. 

"After a while, you can check the eggs with a light to see if there's an embryo developing." 

Finn looks curious, intrigued. He has that look he gets when he's learning something he enjoys discovering. For a moment, working with Finn at his side, Poe feels better. 

"Want to bet on how many will hatch?" Poe asks. "It's kind of a tradition. Snap will want in on the pool, too."

Finn looks serious and thoughtful, then nods. "We have to give them all names, though."

Poe laughs. "You can name all of them. Merry Christmas."


	28. Chapter 28

They take Christmas Day off - after the events of the evening before, it only makes sense. Poe putters in the sun room for a while, trying not to check on the incubator too often. Logically, hatching eggs in January will be a bit of a nightmare. He'll have to set up a brooder inside the house, and when they're all in full feather, pen them in the relative warmth of the cold cellar until the thaw comes in or they're at a good, fat weight.

It would be smarter to borrow some eggs from another flock in the pack or even order some day old chicks from the feed store in Houlton after spring. 

There's some notion of legacy in Poe's mind, however, that refuses to be dismissed. So he makes all these complicated plans and bets on six. The four from the coop, and a few from the on-hand supply. Snap bets on nine, and Finn bets all ten.

Poe will miss fresh eggs for a while.

Finn helps him clean out the rest of the coop, scouring it down and closing it up against the weather on the day after.

"What's your new years resolution going to be?" Poe asks, idly. There's been a strange look on Finn's face all day. The time in the now-empty coop seems to have bothered him.

"I, uh, hadn't actually thought about it," Finn says.

"It's getting pretty close," Poe reminds, though it seems impossible even to him.

Outside, it's already dark. The days are shorter than the nights, now. Inside, the fire keeps them warm and lights up the living room. The tree is still up, decorated in years old ornaments and tinsel. Poe had weeded it out from the saplings encroaching on the far corner of his property. It's far from perfect, but it had cleaned up well, bearing up under the weight of the lights and garlands gamely.

"Well," Finn says. "I could have the same one I had last year, since I only barely kept it."

"Which was?" Poe asks, curious. Neither of them speaks much about the past.

"Get away from the First Order and stay away," Finn reveals.

"Well, you couldn't get much further," Poe reminds him, catching his hands, leaning up to kiss him.

But a strange look crosses Finn's face again at that. He nods, slowly. Poe is compelled to comfort him, wanting to remind Finn that he is _here_ now - and Poe hopes that, threats aside, he can stay here. That the new pack is better for Finn. He pulls Finn down for a kiss, a chaste gesture that seems to bring him back to the right moment in time, and they settle together on the couch, pressed against each other.

Poe knows these few days have only been bearable because of Finn.

"What about you?" Finn asks. "What's your resolution?"

Poe looks up at him and smiles a little, knowing they may be in for a very difficult year.

"I have two," he says, as Finn wraps an arm around his shoulders. "First, have better luck. Second, not to spend New Year's Eve alone."


	29. Chapter 29

Finn's sure he knows the scent from the chicken coop. The wolf's scent. It's so familiar that he's sure it can't be from casual acquaintance. He doesn't _want_ it to be true, but after a few days thinking about it and watching Poe fuss over the incubator, he's sure.

"You should tell Leia," Snap advises. Word had made it back to him about the chickens already. Maybe Poe had told him, through the 'twilight bark'.

Either way, he and Jess have turned up with beer to share, all crowding into Poe's living room and making the place feel lived in, stretching the capacity of his couch.

"I dunno," Poe says.

"She could find out who did it," Jess protests, leaning forward. "This isn't _right_ , Poe."

"No," Poe agrees. "But I don't want to set off some - some chain of retribution or something."

Finn sees his nervous glance toward B.B. - Poe's closed up the dog door since the attack, and now either he or Finn follows the dog out on his sabbaticals.

"Poe," Snap says, "you should tell her anyway. This is a dangerous undermine of her authority, and to let someone get away with it..."

"I know," Poe says. "You're right, but I don't want to run to the pack leader like a puppy every time something happens." 

Finn wants to tell him - wants to let him know, but not in front of their pack members. Finn doesn't want - he knows Snap and Jess are protective of Poe, and he doesn't want to be seen as a threat to Poe's safety.

"If I fix this myself, it will make a point," Poe says, firmly. "It'll make other people think twice before trying the same thing."

Jess looks impressed but Snap looks less certain - and Finn feels the same. Poe could wind up making an enemy of the whole pack - or more of them than he can handle.

"Yeah, that's the spirit. Let us help you kick some ass," Jess says, cracking her knuckles in anticipation.

"I'm not sure, buddy," Snap says.

"Don't worry," Poe assures them. "I'm not going to go looking for trouble. I just plan on being ready to confront it if it happens again."

Finn's heart sinks a little, and he sees Poe look at him, like he's ready to stand up to anything for him. Finn feels the same, but he knows the dangers that the First Order might offer. He's not sure what to do - if he can ask the pack to honor Sanctuary when his situation and Poe's are so precarious. And - if they've really found him, if they really want him back...

This little pack might not be able to stop them.

Finn finishes his beer. He wants to be sure, before he makes anything of this. Maybe it's just a threat to warn he and Poe away from each other. He's going to find out.


	30. Chapter 30

Finn shimmies out the dog door early on the 29th, feeling a little guilty. He _should_ tell Poe. He wants to be sure before he worries his mate - they already have enough to worry about, without this being added on unnecessarily.

So, he goes to make sure. By himself.

_If it's nothing, I just won't mention it,_ Finn tells himself, shaking out his fur. _And if it's really them, I'll - I dunno. I'll figure it out._

He starts in the chicken run, trying to pull any lingering scent out of the tracks but - they're too old, now. Almost a week. He tries to track them visually instead, following the much fainter signs back from the gate.

The wolf had been careful, following in the worn down path through the snow that he and Poe used to take down to the coop, and come around the cabin from the front. Finn keeps his nose to the ground, searching for any sign of the scent he is sure he'd picked up in the chicken coop.

He follows it to a hole in the lattice under the front porch - it looks barely big enough for a raccoon or opossum. 

_Was something really under there?_

It's a scary thought. Something so close and so dangerous. Finn doesn't smell anything now - but maybe if the wolf had been hiding underneath long enough, he'd find evidence.

Finn squeezes himself down into the dark place under the porch, twisting until he fits through the hole. The broken lattice scrapes his sides and pulls his fur in places, and getting his butt in is a feat of contortion. But then he's under, in the dimly lit space, waiting for his eyes to adjust. 

He finds a faint trace of scent and a depression where an animal slept - it looks recent. Within the last few days. Maybe even as they'd discovered the attack, the enemy had been right here, curled up and listening to the results.

Finn can hear B.B.'s claws on the tile in the kitchen, and the floor boards shifting as Poe moves around, doing his morning routine. He can smell coffee, and hear the soft strains of the blues on the radio.

It sends a shiver down his spine.

Finn pushes his nose into the spot, and finds the old traces of a scent mark, the ground scratched up. He was right - it _is_ the first order. One of his former assigned hunt-mates.

He has to tell Poe. They can figure out what to do together. As he turns around, he finds a word written in old, rust-brown blood along the foundation - meant for him.

_Traitor._


	31. Chapter 31

"We have to go," Finn says, panic clear in his tone - the instant Poe gets something coherent out of him, anyway. He'd plunged in through the dog-door with muddy paws and a wild expression on his canine features. 

He'd transformed back, much to Poe's amusement. A naked man - albeit a _beautiful_ naked man in his kitchen is a little distracting, even with Finn's urgent attitude.

"Go where?" Poe asks. He looks up from Finn's delightfully bare chest to his eyes, and sees something unsettling there. This doesn't seem like Finn's idea of a joke.

"The First Order is - they found me," Finn says.

Poe takes a deep breath, uncertain. "It's alright, Finn. You have Sanctuary. Leia won't revoke that."

"I'm pretty sure their scout is who killed - who attacked your chickens, Poe. It wasn't a warning for you, it was for _me_ ," Finn rushes on.

Poe reaches for him, instinctively wanting to comfort his mate. Finn takes hold of his hands, covering Poe's with his own, looking into his eyes as if searching for some understanding of the same fear he feels. 

"Finn, c'mon buddy, you're okay, right? Did someone hurt you?" Poe asks, feeling his anxiety responding to Finn's distress.

"Poe, he was right here. Under the front deck. He could be coming right now with a whole group from the First Order."

Poe can see the way that scares Finn. In truth, it frightens him, too. 

"We should run. You don't _know_ them," Finn says.

"Finn," Poe says. He doesn't like to see Finn like this, so clearly unhappy. So _afraid_. "We can't run away."

He gets his arms around Finn's shoulders, hoping to reassure him somehow. He can feel the tension in Finn's muscles, and he eases their cheeks together, comforting.

"We're border guards now, Finn, remember? We can't leave - it's our job to warn the pack, to protect our territory," Poe reminds him. "Even from bigger packs."

Finn take a deep breath, getting ahold of himself. When he finds his center again, he nods.

"You wanna talk about this with pants on?" Poe asks.

Finn actually laughs, a heavy weight seeming to lift from the room.

"Guess I should, huh?" he asks, looking a little sheepish.

"Well, I mean, not for my sake," Poe says, teasing, trying to help Finn level out and relax a little. "I'm not complaining."

"Really?" Finn asks, stepping back.

"I mean, you're pretty good to look at," Poe tells him. It's an understatement. He is _damn amazing_ to look at.

"Pretty good, huh?" Finn prompts, fishing for more in a playful way. He takes a deep breath and lets it out, slowly, turning to head into the living room where Poe had passed his clothes earlier.

"You okay?" Poe asks.

"I dunno," Finn admits. He pulls on his shirt first, which is bizarre, but endearing. "He was _here_ , Poe, right here. He could have gone after you."

"Packs aren't supposed to fight each other anymore," Poe reminds.

"I know," Finn says. "But I'm not sure that they'll see it that way - to them, I'm a traitor."

"Well, we see it that way," Poe says. "And the Tribal Pact Accords back us up. Leia can't let this slip, but we'll be doing the right thing to stand up to them. We won't be alone."

Finn closes his eyes, steeling himself. "They won't come from the front. They won't play by the rules. I don't want people - not people in your back, _good_ people - to get killed for me."

"Buddy, it's _our_ pack now," Poe says. "We have to help them get ready, that's our job. I know you don't want to see people hurt."

Finn nods, and when he turns to face Poe again, his resolve has returned.

"Jeez, I better bring enough good coffee for the whole pack," Poe says. "They're not gonna like this."


	32. Chapter 32

He's right. They don't like it. Poe goes to Leia and she calls an immediate full-pack meeting, refusing to let him sit it out on the porch with a good cigar and the heater and nervous energy.

"You should have told me right away," she says.

"I know," Poe apologizes. "I thought it was something different, something I could handle."

Leia pats his shoulder fondly, with a grim resignation that Poe's not sure he likes. Then she turns to address the whole pack as it enters the longhouse - some giving Poe a dirty look, others just uncertain. It's been a long time since they've all been called together, and usually Poe doesn't come unless the meeting concerns him specifically. He guesses this counts.

Poe Joins Finn and Snap and Jess - even Kare, at the back of the room. Finn takes his hand under the table, steadying both of them. They need the contact.

At least one hostile gaze lands on him, and Poe knows most of the faces looking his away with anger and disgust, but there are some that he hadn't expected. Brentin Wexley - Snap's father. Jom Barell. Poe turns his eyes down and away, submitting, trying to avoid a fight - to at least appear appropriately respectful here. This is polarizing - it's worrisome that the group that's outright hostile toward him is growing but he's got Finn now, too. 

Poe hates to have to think of things in terms of who is on his side and who isn't.

"I need everyone's attention," Leia says, standing up in front of the big fireplace at the back of the room. Poe can't believe how commanding she looks, her small frame commanding everyone simply by force of presence.

As she outlines the problem, Poe expects the pack to become upset, for them to glare or turn on Poe. After all, it's his fault that Finn is here - he's the one who first agreed to grant sanctuary.

But, surprisingly, it doesn't go that way. No one so much as looks at him - perhaps content to ignore his very existence, or trying to deny he had any effect on the pack at all. They don't even bother to look at Finn, who the First Order is hunting. All eyes - including Statura and Ackbar - are trained on Leia.

_The strength of the wolf is the pack,_ Poe thinks. _The strength of the pack is the wolf._

When she's done relaying the story, Statura stands up and Poe winces. _Here it comes..._

"Have you contacted the other local packs for support?" he asks, instead of anything Poe expects. Finn squeezes his hand trading I-can't-believe-it looks with Poe.

"Not yet. I thought it best we decide what to do as a pack before I made any move," she says. "If we decide to uphold the sanctuary, I will contact the Alphas of all the tribes. If they break the Pact, we can expect a howling."

"A Tribal meeting?" Ackbar says, sounding uncertain about the idea.

"I know that's a scary enough prospect to keep most packs in line, but it sounds like the newer ones - including the First Order - don't remember what it cost to get peace in the first place," Leia says.

Several heads nod in agreement.

"Anyway, they'll think twice about pressing the issue if they know we're ready for them," Ackbar puts in, his rough voice cutting through the murmurs. "And that the other packs are watching their actions."

"I don't like the implication that we can't take care of our own," Statura says.

"We'll do our own fighting, if it comes to that," Ackbar says.

"But if it can be prevented from coming to further violence, we should try," Leia agrees.


	33. Chapter 33

"So that, uh," Finn says, as they return to the cabin, burdened with the chore of extra perimeter patrols until further notice. "That actually went pretty well." 

"Yeah," Poe says, feeling just as surprised by it. "I guess they consider us a part of the pack, even if maybe I'm not their _favourite_ part."

"Nobody stood up against you," Finn says.

"Maybe they finally realize I'm not a threat," Poe says.

"Well, you make your own luck," Finn agrees.

"I guess nobody in the whole pack likes the idea of letting a bunch of thugs intimidate us," Poe says.

They take the back steps up, approaching from the pack's territory, and Poe pulls his keys out of his pocket. 

"You ready to wake up two times tonight for a boundary patrol?" Poe asks, with some humor.

"Wow, you just - you had to remind me," Finn groans.

"Free ride's over buddy," Poe teases, gently. He'll have to get up, too. "Welcome to being a productive member of the pack."

Poe takes the two back steps up to the door and then stops. In the instant before he swings the door open, something seems to warn him. Some sense, some scent changes his awareness, triggers the wolf in the back of his thoughts up and awake, roaring to life even as a massive black shape erupts from the back door, slamming it open and out so fast Poe jumps back into Finn to avoid getting battered off the small porch.

A black wolf comes howling out of the house, breath streaming out of its open, red mouth. The heavy, black-furred body impacts Poe squarely in the chest, taking him off his feet before his own change completes.

"Poe!" Finn shouts somewhere. It seems far away as fury churns up Poe's blood and slides down his spine, twisting and shaping his skin as it travels, pulling his shape into something different. Fur sprouts, limbs lengthen in relation to his body.

The black wolf sinks his teeth into Poe's shoulder, deep and hard enough to crush bone, snarling even still so that Poe feels it echoing into her body. Poe finds herself entrapped in her own clothing, changed and struggling with the heavier animal on top of her - but she has claws and teeth now, and she lashes out with a bite, attempting to push the other wolf off or drive him back. The scent that fills her mouth and nose is mad and half-feral, like burning blood and ashes.

For a moment they lock mouth to mouth, teeth tearing at the sensitive inside of her lip, at her tongue, and she crushes down on the wolf's jaw in return, stubbornly trying to damage her attacker as much in return. She twists and turns around the anchoring point of her unyielding jaws as her clothes constrict around her, trying to get free, _trying_ to get leverage, _trying to get_ -

Something jerks and yanks against the black wolf, impacting the strange animal from the side, driving him off of Poe and sending him stumbling away.

_Finn!_

Poe's heart fills with a gleeful determination, an immense relief to see Finn's wolf-form standing with her, holding the black wolf at bay with his body stiff and his tail raised in clear challenge.

Poe struggles the rest of the way out of her torn clothes, aware now of her bleeding and injured shoulder as it drags free of her shirt. She rushes to join Finn against the intruder anyway.

The wolf rounds on both of them, his fur sticking out stiffly in all directions, tail raised and teeth bloody and bared, he snarls and snaps.

Poe lunges forward, her pain compelling her to do some harm in return. She goes for the wolf's vulnerable legs, aware that Finn is just behind her and this wolf - this _stranger_ is alone, trespassing where he does not belong. 

He's fast, though. He twists out of the way in a lightning fast motion, going after Finn instead.

Blood flies, teeth clash. Poe hurls himself in and the tangle of wiry, snarling bodies becomes thick with aggression. Poe snaps at anything with black fur that she can reach, and feels something catch and tear. Hard to tell if she does any real damage - her mouth is already full of her own blood, and her pulse is pounding in her ears.

Poe hears Finn yelping, making an agonized sound, and her fury and worry become blinding. She tears at the black wolf, getting her teeth into the nape of his neck and dragging him back, throwing him off Finn, off his feet.

He pulls her over into the snow and Poe hears Finn stumbling to his feet, hears the snarling of the black wolf suddenly turning on her.

Finn howls, almost deafening, sounding the alarm and summoning the pack. Then the black wolf is pinning Poe in the snow, rearing up and muscling her over even as she tries to hold on. He's bigger than she is, taller on hind legs and he topples her backwards in a desperate stumbling motion before Poe feels teeth at her throat, finding skin through fur and closing tight.


	34. Chapter 34

By the time the pack arrives, Poe and Finn have the black wolf at bay, but they're both tired and in rough shape. Finn is gasping for air, and Poe feels dizzy, like she can't breathe deeply enough. 

But the stranger is tiring, too, and it's two against one. He's gotten the better of both of them so far - but it won't last forever. One side has to win, and even if the black wolf kills one of them...

Answering howls interrupt Poe's next lunge, causing the black wolf to draw up tense. All three of them listen frantically for signs of who is coming. A cold, deep fear seizes Poe in the instant before she recognizes her Alpha's howl leading the charge.

The black wolf turns around and bolts, but Poe barely feels the victory, even as her pack mates emerge from the trees to give chase. She can't join them - now that the immediate danger is gone, her limbs are shaking, muscles burning with exhaustion, the pain of her injuries are starting to really make themselves felt. 

She sees the big, red form of Ackbar run by, and decides her part in the fight is done before she turns to check on her mate.

Finn doesn't look good, sitting in the snow like getting up is beyond his ability right now. She goes to him, pressing her shoulder against his, feeling how they're both trembling and shivering. She immediately feels better for the contact, and Finn turns to check on her, on the injuries in her neck and shoulder. He presses a cold nose against her cheek, gently.

There's a lot of blood in the snow. Most of it must be from her and Finn, but she takes one sore and aching moment to feel some pride - she and her mate had won - they'd defended the pack's territory, even with a real danger encroaching.

She and Finn limp slowly back toward the house and she can feel blood freezing in her coat, knowing that her change back will mean fresh agony and the loss of her insulative coat. 

Finn suddenly sits down, as if unable to go any further, and Poe turns to look, worried. There's a blank, distant look in Finn's brown eyes.

_He's really hurt,_ Poe realizes. She makes the decision without having to think too hard about it. She's tired enough that the change happens slowly, painfully as the tears in her hide become rips in his skin.

Poe's groaning and cold, icy old slush and snow sticking to him when the change completes. His neck feels bruised, and he's pretty sure there's a fracture in his collarbone. But he gets his arms around Finn, fingers sinking into his soft, hickory-colored fur.

Finn whines, leaning into him.

"Okay, buddy," Poe says, feeling his vision swim. "It's going to be okay."

Werewolves are not small - _wolves_ aren't small, and Finn's heavy. Hard to lift, but Poe does it, straining his injured shoulder, hoisting Finn up against his chest, trying his best not to jostle Finn too much. He's heavy, and Poe's bent nearly in half, trying not to drag Finn's back end as he carries him toward the house.

"Anyone ever tell you you're a big oaf?" Poe grunts, getting Finn up the steps. Finn licks his cheek appreciatively.

He's bare naked, battered and half-frozen but he's alive. They're _both_ alive. That's the best luck he's had this year.


	35. Chapter 35

He keeps Finn talking to distract him from his work with antiseptic and bandages. There's a bite on his back that'll need stitches - a long, nasty gash. The rest is lesser - punctures and bruises - they're both going to have a bad night and a bad morning after.

"Who was that?" Poe asks, applying a bandaid over the back of Finn's knuckles. 

It seems to bring Finn out of a trance, ease him back to reality. He looks down at Poe and the open first aid kit and winces.

"You're going to need work too," he observes.

"I know," Poe says. "That guy wasn't messing around."

"Did we beat him?" Finn asks. It worries Poe - but he doesn't remember the fight very clearly either, it was all wolf-feelings and anger and pain. 

"Yeah - well, we held him off," Poe says, supposing the fight was too close. They'd taken too much damage to say they'd won outright. "Our pack went after him."

Finn looks concerned, as if he might try to get up and go after them even now. Poe puts his hand on Finn's shoulder, steadying him. 

"The _whole_ pack," Poe clarifies. "They'll be okay. They're actually pretty tough."

"Hope so," Finn says. "That's Kylo Ren."

"Who?" Poe asks. _He must be from the First Order._

"He's like-" Finn starts, trying to find the right words. Poe works on the cuts on his arms, waiting for him to get his thoughts together. "He's like a weapon. The First Order sends him after their enemies."

"A weapon?" Poe asks.

"Yeah," Finn says. "He's - well, he really embraces the savage ideals. He spends as much time as a wolf as he can."

Poe sits back on his heels, looking up at Finn.

"Are you saying the First Order has been breaking the Tribal Pact Laws?" he asks.

"They're getting ready to," Finn says, "but they haven't yet. Kylo Ren just - he goes after anyone in the pack who tries to go against them, or speaks up against their plans. It's like they've been training him."

It sounds barbaric. No wonder Finn had run, no wonder he'd come so far and asked for sanctuary. That hunted look is back on his features, like he'd had the first night when he'd appeared on Poe's doorstep, dirty and desperate. 

Poe doesn't like to see it back.

"Yeah, but we still beat him," Poe says, trying to sound reassuring. "He was worried enough to lay an ambush. So no matter how dangerous, he doesn't think he can take us all by himself.

Finn nods. "What if he comes back with others?"

"That's war," Poe says. "We're not there, yet."

He smiles up at Finn, seeing the worry and concern on his features.

"I don't want anyone to have to go to war for me," Finn says. "Maybe I should find another place to hide."

"Well," Poe says. "I think you're stuck with us, now. Leia agreed to give you a place - and a job - and she keeps her word."

Finn nods. His gaze is going a little distant. The reality of the situation combined with some shock - with the after-effects of their fights and injuries. Poe touches him gently, stroking his fingers over Finn's bare knees.

"So, your back's pretty bad. We have a couple of options - I took first aid and paramedic courses in the air force, but, uh, I'm a bit rusty," Poe says. "We could go to the hospital in Houlton, or the clinic, I suppose, if you don't trust my sewing skills. You could get real pain meds and antibiotics."

"You don't look so hot either," Finn tells him, reaching out to gently brush his fingers over the bruise on Poe's neck - shaped like teeth. "What would we tell them?"

Poe sighs out. His shoulder is killing him; a low, dull ache. When he moves his left arm he can feel the gritty sensation of the fracture. But they'd hardly put a cast on it. A sling, maybe.

"Guess we'd have to tell them it was a wild animal," Poe says.

"Don't you know any werewolf doctors?" Finn asks, amused.

"I know a good veterinarian," he answers.

"I trust you to do the job," Finn tells him. "But if you're going to sew me up, I better lay down."

"Yeah," Poe says. "I gotcha."

He gets up slowly, meaning to refresh his bowl of clean water, get some new cloths and a sterile needle to sew with.

"Where are you going?" Finn asks, settling down on the floor, face-down by the fire.

"Gotta go get the sewing machine," Poe says, as lightly as possible, just to see Finn's reaction.

He turns his head sharply to look at Poe, wide-eyed but curious. He catches sight of Poe - clearly waiting for his reaction - and relaxes, laughing.

"Okay, you got me," Finn says.

 _Yeah,_ Poe thinks, feeling Finn's smile warm his heart, leaving him scarily content. _I got you._


	36. Chapter 36

Later, with Finn face down on the couch and a line of neat stitches in his back, Poe puts out a call to Snap on the twilight bark.

"Well, we chased him off," Snap says.

"Anybody hurt?" Poe asks, looking up at the bare bulb hanging from the closet ceiling.

"Just you guys," Snap says, then amends, "well, Jess fell down an embankment. I think we had a big enough advantage in numbers."

Poe's glad to hear it - if anyone had been hurt to protect him...

"Are you both okay?" Snap asks, after a second. Poe holds the handset and feels all his hurts.

"Yeah," he says. "Roughed up, but whole."

"You sure you don't want to go get looked at?" Snap asks

"I don't want 'wolf attack' to start circulating in the normals," Poe says.

"Well, I get that," Snap says, quickly. "But don't let your pride keep you from getting help if you need it."

"I just don't want-" Poe starts, then stops. He listens to Finn in the other room. He can't hear any movement, just the fire crackling, the radio playing soft jazz.

He lowers his voice and continues. "No more hunters, no more traps."

The image of a still, furred body in the snow. Blood over the ground, blood in the light colored fur. Limbs stretched out, one hind leg mangled by a cruel vise. It overtakes Poe's mind like an afterimage, burnt there forever. There had been a tag - a hunter's permission slip for murder - clipped to the body's ear.

Kes had covered Poe's eyes, but-

"Yeah," Snap's voice comes back over the Ham, pulling Poe back to the here and now.

Poe changes the subject. "I was hoping you could bring us some painkillers. I have a little aspirin, but..."

"Oh," Snap says. "Yeah, I got you."

"Thanks, Snap," Poe says.

"Well, if there's a thing I do well, it's garden," Snap says. "Gimme 20 to get my shit together."

"Take your time," Poe says. He signs off, leaving the radio set to receive on their channel, and hanging up the handset before he reaches up to turn off the light.

As Poe passes the front door, he stops to have a look at the splintered panel, evidence of the strength of the werewolf that had attacked them. The door was broken badly enough that the latch assembly was torn halfway free.

Poe's glad that B.B. is a coward with the good sense to run upstairs and hide under the bed in the loft, rather than challenge this intruder. Poe pushes the door closed to keep as much heat in as possible, resisting the urge to wedge his shoulder against it when it starts to stick.

He wedges a chair against it instead.

_If only the First Order thought about dog-doors,_ Poe laments. At least the black wolf, Kylo Ren, hadn't thought to trash the inside of Poe's house. Or hadn't had the time to.

He rejoins Finn in the living room, trying not to feel too shaken.

"Hey," Finn says, catching Poe's attention back from the way he's drifting lost in his thoughts.

Poe looks up into his dark eyes, and finds them far more pleasant to get lost in. They're sweet, a little worried, but really determined. Finn reaches out for him, and Poe goes, content to submit, to follow his instincts for comfort and reassuring contact. They settle good-shoulder to shoulder.

"Happy New Year," Finn says.

"Shit," Poe says. "Really?"

"They played the countdown on the radio," Finn says.

Poe laughs a little, on the edge of nervous mania. "This has been the craziest holiday-"

Finn reaches out, curling his hand under Poe's chin, turning their mouths together for a soft, slow kiss. A long, lingering and gentle thing that ties Poe's insides up in knots like one of those racing dogs, and then lasts long enough for him to relax again, after he practically climbs into Finn's lap.

Finn slowly leans back, smiling at Poe in an extremely satisfied way. He looks like he's just accomplished something.

"Happy New Year to you too," Poe says, feeling his body warm with the sensation of something completely new.


	37. Chapter 37

"I've never done this before," Finn admits, with lassitude spreading to his limbs and the bruised-aching feeling in his body beginning to dissipate.

"Yeah?" Poe asks, watching him with almost clinical attention. "I hear it's more common out here in the country."

Finn laughs. It seems _really_ funny.

"Well," Poe explains. "No one cares out here, and there's no one to catch you, really."

Finn can still smell the fruity and skunkish smell of the smoke, taste it over his tongue. The effects initially had been sharp and dizzying, now it's just mellow and easy. It's not really what Finn expected, but maybe that's partially because he's in that low, post-fight anxious place, with a few injuries to show for it.

"I don't know if I like it," Finn admits.

"Does it help your back?" Poe asks.

"Yeah," Finn says. "But I feel fuzzy, too."

"That's just being high," Poe says.

Finn leans back, carefully feeling the distant way all of his bruises protest and then seem to ease again as he relaxes his weight into the support of the couch. He just experiences the sensation. It's a little like he used to feel getting off the merry-go-round at the playground as a kid, half-dizzy but happy. Exultant. Kinetic.

Poe settles down next to him, and Finn reaches out to pull him close. It's been a long day, a taxing day, but Finn still carries a charge. Poe hisses a little, and Finn eases back.

"Sorry!" he says. "Your arm - I forgot - sorry."

Poe readjusts himself to take pressure off the injury, and then leans against Finn again.

"We're okay," Poe says. His body is soft and easy against Finn's side, and it feels good, right. Like maybe this could last a good long while.

"You were pretty kickass today," Finn says.

"Told you I could defend myself," Poe says, sounding pleased by the compliment to his wolf-self.

"I helped a little," Finn teases. Poe turns on him, as if he's about to bite _Finn_ next in a playful gesture, but instead he reaches up to curl his hand under Finn's chin, guiding their mouths together.

"I never had anybody defend me before," Poe says.

Finn runs his hand through Poe's hair, thinking that they defended each other today. _We fought together. It's what mates do._ Even though it's been an awful day, Finn could hardly ask for a clearer sign of their devotion. It was just - instinct. 

Finn admits the thought's a little sappy. But he trusts Poe - Poe trusts him. They're both from places where that's not easy. Finn likes - _really_ likes - having that reassurance.

"What's on your mind?" Poe asks, leaning against Finn's shoulder and looking up at him through his eyelashes.

"That you are super, incredibly sexy," Finn says, automatically. There's nothing else to say, really.

Poe laughs. "You too, you know."

"I noticed you look a lot," Finn says. "Before I figured it out, it made me feel like I had something on my face."

"Sure," Poe says. "There's handsome all over it, even right now."

Finn laughs at the hopelessly cheesy line, and his whole body feels warm and buzzing. He laughs because it feels good, like his worries and all the uncertain things about the future are melting away.

"Did you practice that one?" he asks Poe.

His answer is a smile, the sort that Poe gets when everything is going his way, or he's about to do something naughty - maybe the world has made those things feel one and the same for him. It's the same expression on both his forms, canine features just as suited to it.

Poe drops his hand into Finn's lap, cupping it over his cock through his pants, pressing the heat of his palm through the fabric and into his skin. Finn's interest spikes up, a hot, tight sensation of readiness that wakes up faster than Finn thought possible. Poe strokes his palm over the growing bulge in Finn's pants and then suggests, slyly,

"I have an idea,"

"I like your ideas," Finn says, his voice a little tighter sounding than he expects. It feels _really_ good, like the touch is slipping under his skin instead of over it, somehow deeper and magnified.

"What if it's a bad idea?" Poe asks, playing, shifting lower against Finn's side.

"I'll tell you if I think it's bad, if you tell me what it is," Finn sighs out, as Poe undoes his zipper. It feels like each tooth that parts is a tiny, sensitizing impact against his body.

Poe leans down a little further and shows him instead, curling his fingers through Finn's unzipped pants and the open fly of his boxers to get ahold of his cock. That first touch of skin against skin is intense, like Poe is connecting with more than just a touch.

"Oh yeah," Finn groans. "It's a _great_ idea."

Then the velvet- hot touch of Poe's mouth is on him and Finn sinks down under the sensation - _onto_ it. It's overwhelmingly good - hot and slick. Finn closes his eyes and gasps out, leaning his head back over the top of the couch, aware that he's making sounds but not how that's significant. Instead, the world reassembles itself as good feelings, intense pleasure that just wraps around Finn's tailbone and coils down his spine.

"Poe," he gasps, by way of warning. Every second seems to stretch on forever; Finn can feel the rasp of the texture of Poe's tongue over the head of his cock, hot saliva sliding down his length behind, and that sweet lurching instant before release seems to stretch right out and last forever. Finn can feel it poised on the moment, his heart beating, Poe shifting his grip, before it spills over him. Blooming out slowly but so, so intensely. It washes over Finn like waves, tumbling him in it until he's sure he's either cum ten times or for ten solid minutes.

Finn has to fight his way back out of the haze. Everything feels lighter, all of his bruises forgotten. It's like lying in salt water and letting it carry you away. But when he drifts back, Poe is looking up at him from his lap, dark eyed and fascinated.

Colors seem bright - Poe's eyes are red-brown from the firelight, his mouth pink and flushed, his skin dusky-tan under his curls, and Finn has to touch him, stroking his finger-tips through Poe's hair, over his cheeks.

"Good idea?" Poe asks, and Finn can feel the rumble of his voice against his thigh and it's almost more intimate than the most amazing blowjob he's ever gotten.

"Yeah," Finn says, pulling Poe up against his chest, carefully, letting Poe do most of the lifting and adjusting before Finn puts his arms around him. "Probably one of the best ideas I've ever heard."


	38. Chapter 38

"How did he get in?" Leia asks, standing over them like they were pups again in Poe's living room. She'd refused to sit (but accepted coffee) too agitated by something to settle down at all.

"He broke through the front door," Poe explains."My guess is we surprised him before he found what he wanted."

"Mm-mm," Finn denies, still sounding a little woozy and dreamy. He'd still be adorably high if not for the necessity of pain relief. He continues when he realizes both Poe and Leia are looking at him. "No, he wanted an opportunity to do real damage."

"He waited for a chance to attack and he took it," Finn says. "If he had found someone alone, he would have killed them."

Leia growls. "That's an act of war."

Poe goes cold at the thought. War would mean - it would mean a _lot_ of fighting. A lot of death. The packs had fought relentlessly, almost to the point of discovery before the pact-accords. His father used to speak about it.

"We should try to resolve it another way," Poe says.

"Ma'am, the First Order is _really_ big," Finn adds. 

She looks at Finn with enough fire in her eyes that Poe feels him shift back submissively, even though it's not directed at either of them. Poe knows the feeling, she looks mad beyond what he expected.

"The second someone bigger than me gets to dictate my actions is the day I burn the world down," she says, her arms crossed over her chest in a defiant pose. 

Poe believes her. The diplomat hasn't destroyed the rest of her, and he's glad for that. Her gaze softens after a moment.

"But I will try to do things the right way," she promises.

For a long moment she just looks over the both of them huddled together and bandaged up on the couch with B.B. between them. After a moment of looking into the past, she sighs.

"You did well, boys," she tells them, lifting her hands onto the crowns of both their heads in a display of favor and affection.

"You know," she says wryly. "Maybe we can work this to our advantage."

"Ma'am?" Poe asks, uncertain.

"Just trust me," she says, refusing to give any other details.

Poe already does trust her - with his life, with his loyalty. The rest is not something she's asked in the past. Now that she does, Poe finds himself willing to give it.


	39. Chapter 39

Leia presses the matter with the other pack leaders, and with the other local packs. She calls, for the first time in years, for a howling.

Poe and Finn heal - bruises fading first, then deeper injuries starting to ease. Poe puts a new door up and takes out Finn's stitches on the same day, and that's when it really hits him; it's 2017. A new year.

The chickens will be hatching in about a week, and another full moon is coming. It's a small revelation - time is still passing - but it feels momentous. It gets Poe out of bed the next morning a little stiffly, but in a good mood. 

Poe's nearly got this down to routine. Before the sun is up, he feels it most acutely. He can hear Finn moving around in the cabin, B.B. usually trailing after him before he joins Poe in the sun room once the coffee is made. It's something Poe never expected to have.

But it seems easy, somehow. They both sit on the swinging bench and watch the late Maine sunrise, both sipping coffee.

"Is it like you imagined?" Poe asks Finn, watching the golden sunlight turn the old, hard packed and crusted snow to a shining and bright color. First it touches the tops of the pines that reach up from the steep, hilly slopes surrounding them. Then it eases through the spaces between the trunks, cutting through the shadows and down onto the snow-covered clearing around the cabin.

"Well," Finn says in a light tone that suggest he's actually pretty happy. "There's way less weird stuff than _Needful Things_ promised me."

Poe shakes his head. He hasn't read Stephen King since he was a kid, but he knows that instinct in 'outsiders'. Not that he'd count Finn as an outsider anymore.

"In some ways it is," Finn answers in earnest. "In some ways, it's totally different."

Poe remembers what it was like when he first came back from his time on post, in the city. The quiet had taken some getting used to; the long days, the hard work. The idea that he was never going to have much money - the discovery that he could really produce almost everything he needs.

"Yeah," Poe agrees, wondering if he'd have been as happy out there flying planes as he is with Finn leaning shoulder to shoulder with him, right now. "But the differences are more good than bad."

They sit peacefully on the swinging bench, enjoying the warm sun's rays, trapped and amplified by the glass walls surrounding them and Poe's winter vegetables.

"What's it like in the spring?" Finn asks, as if reading Poe's thoughts.

'Hectic," Poe admits. He won't lie about that. "But rewarding."

"You'll have extra help this year," Finn assures him.

"Good," Poe says. "We'll need a bigger garden if we're both eating."

Finn grins at him. "We should grow lots of hot peppers."

"You and Snap and that jalapeno jelly," Poe answers, amused by Finn's transparency.

"It's your recipe, you created the monster," Finn tells him.

Poe leans back, pushing the swing with his feet, feeling the warmth of the coffee cup in his grip.

He's content because this is what he has to do - this is the life that affords him the most freedom with his condition. But Poe can't help wondering how long Finn will be happy with this, when he can leave at any time.

_When it stops being new, will his interests change?_

Will Finn's desire for a family eventually drive them apart? Or will the fighting? Poe knows, at least, that he can survive on his own. That he's got himself together, with or without Finn.

 _I'd just rather it be with,_ he thinks, _at least as long as possible._

That's all still somewhere in the future. It's easy to look that far ahead and ignore what they're facing right in front of them.

It could be war again, if the other packs aren't willing to present a united front against the First Order.

Or, the crisis could end and the full weight of the pack's attention could land back on Poe again, disapproving. He's not sure if he should hope the distraction continues or not.

"Don't think so hard," Finn says, so close Poe can feel his voice. "It's too early."

"When's the right time?" Poe asks.

"Usually, like, the middle of the night," Finn teases. "But in the middle of a crazy bender is also acceptable."

Poe laughs, pulling Finn close - and it's the first time the word 'love' crosses his thoughts.


	40. Chapter 40

Statura catches Finn alone, following him out of the long house on poker night. 

Finn knows he can't ignore it, so he waits when Statura calls him. Ackbar was strange and a little hard to get a read on, but Finn thinks he and the rest of the pack have warmed up to him some.

He's got no idea bout Statura. He spends a lot of time with the older members of the pack. Listening, mostly. The older members seem to have a lot to say.

"Good evening, Pack Elder," Finn says, keeping his tone respectful.

Statura gives a glance back at the longhouse as if measuring how far away it is.

"Good evening, Finn," Statura says. Then surprisingly, "Let me walk you home."

It seems like a strange offer and for a moment, Finn kind of wishes he'd stayed inside. But - maybe that was the wrong way to think. The people who don't like Poe seem to be the ones who won't make any effort to get to know him.

"You, uh," Finn says, as they crunch through the snow in the early evening air, "you know I'm staying with Poe now, right?"

Statura gives Finn a bland look. Finn can almost see how it must look on his features as a wolf. 

"First of all," Statura says, "what kind of pack elder wouldn't know about a whole new border guard?"

Finn guesses he's got a point. "Sorry."

"Second, believe me, I've heard about it," Statura finishes. "It's not like no one noticed you two together the last full moon."

"Man," Finn says, suddenly tired. "Does nobody mind their own business around here?"

"We're a wolf-pack," Statura reminds. "We're involved with each other. Usually that's a positive thing, but not always."

"It's not a curse," Finn says. "He's not unlucky."

"Well," Statura says. "It's genetic, and that's about as close to a 'mystical curse' on the family line' as you can get without involving an actual witch."

It derails Finn enough to realize he's not exactly being respectful to his pack elder. He reins himself in with an effort.

"Witches aren't real," Finn says.

"Think again," Statura says. "I personally know a few. We're not that far from Salem up here, you know."

"Are you yanking my chain?" Finn asks.

Statura doesn't answer, letting the mysterious silence make it's own suggestion. Finn goes back to the part of the conversation that matters.

"It's not like he asked for this, or that he does it on purpose," Finn says.

"Sure," Statura agrees. "You know that, _I_ know that. Some folks who also surely know that feel that entitles him to a chance to live in the pack. To them, that's a pretty big concession."

Finn sighs. They walk through the woods for a while in silence.

"So what's this about," Finn says, gesturing back and forth between himself and Statura. "Are you going to tell me we shouldn't be together?"

"No," Statura says, surprising Finn.

"Why not?" 

"Because I don't feel that way," the elder explains, simply.

Finn's really confused now. Rather than guess what the conversation is actually supposed to be about, he goes quiet and waits for Statura to take the lead.

"What I actually want to talk to you about is a place on the Alpha's Council," Statura says, watching Finn carefully.

The words almost don't make sense.

"For - me?" Finn asks, stupidly.

"Well," Statura says. "The conservative and moderate aspects of our pack are already represented. But the pack's growing. By next year, we'll have almost as many kids as adults, if my guesses are right."

Finn goes quiet, listening. His surprise and shock are growing with each new word out of Statura's mouth.

_And I almost blew him off._

"Your faction - younger wolves from a more diverse world - needs a voice, too. Maybe the real problem here is that one voice is too loud, and another voice is silent."

Finn looks at him, trying to measure his sincerity. What he sees is genuine.

"Why me?" Finn asks. "Why not Snap or Jess?"

"Jess refused the position," Statura says. "Her exact words were 'I'll see them in the pit, but I won't argue with them.' Snap's going to be a father in October."

Statura shrugs. "You were Leia's first choice, anyway. Plus you've proven yourself as a border guard."

 _Poe took the point on that, he's the better guard,_ Finn thinks, but that won't serve him to argue right now. He takes a deep breath. He knows why it can't be Poe, but this is a compromise - a big step forward.

And a _lot_ of responsibility, Finn knows. He'll have to really listen to people, even if he doesn't completely agree with them, and really advocate for them.

"Can I think about it?" he asks, hoping it's not a wrong answer.

"Yes," Statura says. He hesitates on the edge of Poe's property, and Finn can see his mate sitting on the side porch where he smokes, a big book open in his lap and cigar smoke trailing into the evening light.

"Think about it for a couple of days, but there's a New England howling just after the full moon," Statura reminds - as if Finn could forget. The whole idea makes him anxious. "Leia could use a well-balanced council to back her up when it comes to that."

"I'll tell you by then," Finn promises.

Statura hesitates. He's satisfied with Finn's answer but he has the voices of the pack in the back of his mind.

"You know that it's likely if there's any children that they'll have the same transformation," Statura says. Finn thinks he's trying to buffer what he hears into something more polite.

It makes Finn both angry and sad - but it's not his right to give away Poe's secrets. Even if he did, there's no sign that they'd believe him, or that it would make any difference. It's an excuse, to the people that don't understand, and they don't want to understand. Maybe he can at least give Statura something to quiet the rest of the pack.

"We're planning to adopt," Finn says.

Statura laughs, once, but it's not dismissive.

"That's good of you," he says, then for just a moment he lets Finn see past the veneer of being a pack elder and to who he really is. "I was adopted. It's not all Hallmark specials, but you'll be fine."

 _Now I just have to tell Poe,_ Finn thinks, unsure if he should laugh or not.

-


	41. Chapter 41

Poe is not surprised by the offer when he thinks about the last time Leia had been over. It has her scent all over it - but she'd used her years of cunning to make it seem like the idea of her other council members. Smart. That's why she's the alpha. _Well, that and some ties to antiquated werewolf royalty._

It's a good plan. Poe knows it's a good plan. This way she has the ability to generate a council majority before she puts in her vote. It will protect her decisions from calls of favoritism.

"Is it really okay with you?" Finn asks, as they both try not to check on the eggs for the hundredth time that day.

Poe's got the brooder - a hundred gallon horse trough filled with a few inches of pine shavings and a heater to keep the right temperature - in the sun room, where they can have peace and quiet and warmth. A place to grow in.

All they have to do is hatch.

"It's really okay with me," Poe says, "if you stay here and help me plant seeds and raise chickens, I'd never hold you back."

Finn reaches for Poe's hands, getting ahold of both of them like he had that first night - when he'd asked for sanctuary, when he'd first touched Poe so gently.

"We lift each other up, always," Finn says, smiling. "That's what mates do."

Poe looks at him, at the warmth in Finn's eyes. The earnest, loving expression on his face, _That's what mates do._

"You're moon-struck," Poe says, breaking the serious tone of the conversation with gentle teasing, pulling Fin towards him with the tether of their hands and embracing him.

A wild instinct rises up in him to start wrestling with Finn, so he changes his grip to a grapple.

"You're moon-struck, too," Finn grunts, before they both go over onto the couch in a tangle of limbs and flailing legs, all that reassuring contact and silly, kinetic energy. They're both moon-struck, of course, half wolf already even before the sun has set.

Poe's looking forward to getting his paws on for the first time ever, he and his wolf-self are in alignment.The rest of his life seems to be falling into place, too.

Playing kicks all the couch cushions on the floor, and sends B.B. scampering for the high ground of Poe's chair. Then, just as quickly it changes to kissing - from one sort of intimate contact to another. Easy. Natural.

Finn leans back, looking up at Poe with those deep brown eyes that get ahold of Poe's heart every time. The door is open, the part of his soul kept hidden behind it is free and frolicking.

"We should adopt a kid," Finn says, just like that.

Poe's instinct is to laugh. "That's the full moon talking."

"No, really," Finn says. "We'd be good dads."

Poe figures he's serious, then, and he settles down on Finn's chest to look at him and sort out the tangled mess of emotions that come up at the proposition. It's not like he's never thought about it - and Finn had mentioned compromise when Poe told him the truth.

"You okay?" Finn asks.

"Are you sure it's not biology's time-clock ticking away?" Poe asks, chin on top of the back of his wrist.

"I don't mean right now," Finn says. "I just mean - well, when we're ready."

Poe thinks about it again, feeling Finn's heartbeat slow and steady under his palm. He really considers a future with Finn lasting long enough to keep a kid's life stable.

To watch someone grow into their own person, loved and supported.

"The pack won't like it," Poe says, seeing one part of the future that he doesn't like.

"The old guard won't like it," Finn agrees. "But the new guard is getting their own ideas, their own voice, and bigger every day. The future is going to change."

After the full moon, there will be a gathering of the leaders of the New England packs - carefully arranged when they'll all be the least inclined to instinct. Finn will be there, and when he comes back he'll be on the Alpha's council.

"I like that idea," Poe says. "When we're ready, when everything starts to go good, and we're pretty sure there's not going to be a war..."

"That's a lot of qualifiers, " Finn says, teasing. He's smiling, though, and he curls his hand around the back of Poe's head and guides their mouths together for a kiss. It goes on, slow and sweet, a real connection between them.

"A lot of _important_ qualifiers," Poe adds, when they lean apart.

"Alright," Finn says. "I agree to all that, but I get final say on a name."

Poe looks at him, trying to understand this request.

"You named all your chickens 'Chicken'," Finn reminds.

At that, Poe has to laugh, deep, all the way through his body and all his contact points with Finn. It shakes through both of them, a quiet joy.

Things are still a little unsteady, but they're stronger together, happier.

In the moment of quiet that comes after the laughter, Poe hears the first soft peeping from the incubator.

-

[The End] (for now)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everyone for their support and response to this fic. I started writing this thing with the intent for it to be short and silly and sweet. It has aspects of all of those things, but grew on the page and in my heart. You guys encouraged me so much on an idea that I thought was 'just a silly little idea', and I want you all to know how much that meant to me. I'm already working on a sequel - which I will dedicate to you guys. As soon as I have a solid piece of that (and I'm not slacking on my other obligations... I have a star wars polyamory big bang piece in the work), I'll start getting it to you. Thanks again so much you guys. And special thanks to - Linatrinch, TheJuggernaut, Krytella, Angelapolis, MayGlenn, beautifullights, and everyone else who commented. You guys are amazing beams of sunlight!

**Author's Note:**

> So I started this with the intention of keeping it small and short, but I ultimately failed to do so (as per usual). This will update in small increments every day for a bit, and I hope you enjoy it. Sorry about the gratuitous subsistence farming.


End file.
